The University of Minnesota aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) system has been operated as a field test facility (FTF) since 1982. The objectives were to design, construct, and operate the facility to study the feasibility of high-temperature ATES in a confined aquifer. Four short-term and two long-term cycles were previously conducted, which provided a greatly increased understanding of the efficiency and geochemical effects of high-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage. The third long-term cycle (LT3) was conducted to operate the ATES system in conjunction with a real heating load and to further study the geochemical impact that heated water storage had on the aquifer. For LT3, the source and storage wells were modified so that only the most permeable portion, the Ironton-Galesville part, of the Franconia-Ironton-Galesville aquifer was used for storage. This was expected to improve storage efficiency by reducing the surface area of the heated volume and simplify analysis of water chemistry results by reducing the number of aquifer-related variables which need to be considered. During LT3, a total volume of 63.2 {times} 10{sup 3} m {sup 3} of water was injected at a rate of 54.95 m{sup 3}/hr into the storage well at a mean temperature of 104.7{degrees}C. Tie-in to the reheat system of the nearby Animal Sciences Veterinary Medicine (ASVM) building was completed after injection was completed. Approximately 66 percent (4.13 GWh) of the energy added to the aquifer was recovered. Approximately 15 percent (0.64 GWh) of the usable (10 building. Operations during heat recovery with the ASVM building`s reheat system were trouble-free. Integration into more of the ASVM (or other) building`s mechanical systems would have resulted in significantly increasing the proportion of energy used during heat recovery.

Phase 1 of the Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) Project at the University of Minnesota was to test the feasibility, and model, the ATES concept at temperatures above 100{degrees}C using a confined aquifer for the storage and recovery of hot water. Phase 1 included design, construction, and operation of a 5-MW thermal input/output field test facility (FTF) for four short-term ATES cycles (8 days each of heat injection, storage, and heat recover). Phase 1 was conducted from May 1980 to December 1983. This report describes the FTF, the Franconia-Ironton-Galesville (FIG) aquifer used for the test, and the four short-term ATES cycles. Heat recovery; operational experience; and thermal, chemical, hydrologic, and geologic effects are all included. The FTF consists of monitoring wells and the source and storage well doublet completed in the FIG aquifer with heat exchangers and a fixed-bed precipitator between the wells of the doublet. The FIG aquifer is highly layered and a really anisotropic. The upper Franconia and Ironton-Galesville parts of the aquifer, those parts screened, have hydraulic conductivities of {approximately}0.6 and {approximately}1.0 m/d, respectively. Primary ions in the ambient ground water are calcium and magnesium bicarbonate. Ambient temperature FIG ground water is saturated with respect to calcium/magnesium bicarbonate. Heating the ground water caused most of the dissolved calcium to precipitate out as calcium carbonate in the heat exchanger and precipitator. Silica, calcium, and magnesium were significantly higher in recovered water than in injected water, suggesting dissolution of some constituents of the aquifer during the cycles. Further work on the ground water chemistry is required to understand water-rock interactions.

A contribution to the 3rd National Climate Assessment report, discussing the following key messages: 1. Choices about land-use and land-cover patterns have affected and will continue to affect how vulnerable or resilient human communities and ecosystems are to the effects of climate change. 2. Land-use and land-cover changes affect local, regional, and global climate processes. 3. Individuals, organizations, and governments have the capacity to make land-use decisions to adapt to the effects of climate change. 4. Choices about land use and land management provide a means of reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas levels.

Archaeology on Lab Land Archaeology on Lab Land People have lived in this area for more than 5,000 years. Lab archaeologists are studying and preserving the ancient human occupation of the Pajarito Plateau. Archaeology on Lab Land exhibit Environmental Research & Monitoring Visit our exhibit and find out how Los Alamos researchers are studying our rich cultural diversity. READ MORE Nake'muu archaeological site Unique Archaeology The thousands of Ancestral Pueblo sites identified on Lab land

Marginal land provides an alternative potential for food and bioenergy production in the face of limited land resources; however, effective assessment of marginal lands is not well addressed. Concerns over environmental risks, ecosystem services and sustainability for marginal land have been widely raised. The objective of this study was to develop a hierarchical marginal land assessment framework for land use planning and management. We first identified major land functions linking production, environment, ecosystem services and economics, and then classified land resources into four categories of marginal land using suitability and limitations associated with major management goals, including physically marginal land, biologically marginal land, environmental-ecological marginal land, and economically marginal land. We tested this assessment framework in south-western Michigan, USA. Our results indicated that this marginal land assessment framework can be potentially feasible on land use planning for food and bioenergy production, and balancing multiple goals of land use management. We also compared our results with marginal land assessment from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and land capability classes (LCC) that are used in the US. The hierarchical assessment framework has advantages of quantitatively reflecting land functions and multiple concerns. This provides a foundation upon which focused studies can be identified in order to improve the assessment framework by quantifying high-resolution land functions associated with environment and ecosystem services as well as their criteria are needed to improve the assessment framework.

An Integrated Land Use and Transportation Planning Tool for Sydney, Australia Dr. Matthew Berryman, University of Wollongong Monday, November 28, 2011 - 1pm Argonne TRACC Building 222, Room D-233 The SMART Infrastructure Facility at the University of Wollongong, Australia, has been building an agent-based model to explore the feedbacks between transportation and land use. We focus on livability as a key driver of agent's location choice, and in addition to transport we include factors such

Conveyance of Land at the Hanford Site, Richland, WA Public Scoping Fact Sheet The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking input for a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Environmental Assessment (EA) to assess the potential environmental effects of conveying approximately 1,641 acres of Hanford Site land to a local economic development organization (https://federalregister.gov/a/2012-23099). The Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC), a DOE-recognized Community Reuse Organization

The US Department of Energy`s (DOE) changing mission, coupled with the need to apply appropriate cleanup standards for current and future environmental restoration, prompted the need for a process to determine preferred Future Land Uses for DOE-owned sites. DOE began the ``Future Land Use`` initiative in 1994 to ensure that its cleanup efforts reflect the surrounding communities` interests in future land use. This plan presents the results of a study of stakeholder-preferred future land uses for the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), located in central Long Island, New York. The plan gives the Laboratory`s view of its future development over the next 20 years, as well as land uses preferred by the community were BNL ever to cease operations as a national laboratory (the post-BNL scenario). The plan provides an overview of the physical features of the site including its history, topography, geology/hydrogeology, biological inventory, floodplains, wetlands, climate, and atmosphere. Utility systems and current environmental operations are described including waste management, waste water treatment, hazardous waste management, refuse disposal and ground water management. To complement the physical descriptions of the site, demographics are discussed, including overviews of the surrounding areas, laboratory population, and economic and non-economic impacts.

This report addresses the land use impacts of past and future energy development and summarizes the major federal and state legislation which influences the potential land use impacts of energy facilities and can thus influence the locations and timing of energy development. In addition, this report describes and presents the data which are used to measure, and in some cases, predict the potential conflicts between energy development and alternative uses of the nation's land resources. The topics section of this report is divided into three parts. The first part describes the myriad of federal, state and local legislation which have a direct or indirect impact upon the use of land for energy development. The second part addresses the potential land use impacts associated with the extraction, conversion and combustion of energy resources, as well as the disposal of wastes generated by these processes. The third part discusses the conflicts that might arise between agriculture and energy development as projected under a number of DOE mid-term (1990) energy supply and demand scenarios.

Leakage occurs whenever actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in one part of the world unleash countervailing forces elsewhere in the world so that reductions in global emissions are less than emissions mitigation in the mitigating region. While many researchers have examined the concept of industrial leakage, land-use policies can also result in leakage. We show that land-use leakage is potentially as large as or larger than industrial leakage. We identify two potential land-use leakage drivers, land-use policies and bioenergy. We distinguish between these two pathways and run numerical experiments for each. We also show that the land-use policy environment exerts a powerful influence on leakage and that under some policy designs leakage can be negative. International ďoffsetsĒ are a potential mechanism to communicate emissions mitigation beyond the borders of emissions mitigating regions, but in a stabilization regime designed to limit radiative forcing to 3.7 2/m2, this also implies greater emissions mitigation commitments on the part of mitigating regions.

This report provides estimates of the amount of land required by past and future energy development in the United States and examines major federal legislation that regulates the impact of energy facilities on land use. An example of one land use issue associated with energy development - the potential conflict between surface mining and agriculture - is illustrated by describing the actual and projected changes in land use caused by coal mining in western Indiana. Energy activities addressed in the report include extraction of coal, oil, natural gas, uranium, oil shale, and geothermal steam; uranium processing; preparation of synfuels from coal; oil refineries; fossil-fuel, nuclear, and hydro-electric power plants; biomass energy farms; and disposal of solid wastes generated during combustion of fossil fuels. Approximately 1.1 to 3.3 x 10/sup 6/ acres were devoted to these activities in the United States in 1975. As much as 1.8 to 2.0 x 10/sup 6/ additional acres could be required by 1990 for new, nonbiomass energy development. The production of grain for fuel ethanol could require an additional 16.9 to 55.7 x 10/sup 6/ acres by 1990. Federal laws that directly or indirectly regulate the land-use impacts of energy facilities include the National Environmental Protection Act, Clean Air Act, Federal Water Pollution Control Act, Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, and Coastal Zone Management Act. The major provisions of these acts, other relevant federal regulations, and similar state and local regulatons are described in this report. Federal legislation relating to air quality, water quality, and the management of public lands has the greatest potential to influence the location and timing of future energy development in the United States.

Renewable Power at the Paragon-Bisti Ranch DOE TEP Review, Golden, CO May 7, 2015 ÔāĖ ÔĀ∂ THE NAVAJO-HOPI LAND SETTLEMENT ACT Ôāß Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act passed 1974 Ôāß Required relocation of Navajo and Hopi families living on land partitioned to other tribe. Ôāß Set aside lands for the benefit of relocates Ôāß Proceeds from RE development for Relocatee Project Background ÔāĖ Ôāß Paragon-Bisti Ranch is selected lands : ÔÉė Located in northwestern New Mexico. ÔÉė 22,000 acres of land ÔÉė

The article explains how the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiments station, MAFES, has helped prepare land exploited by strip mining at North American Coal Corporation's Red Hills Mine. The 5,800 acre lignite mine is over 200 ft deep and uncovers six layers of coal. About 100 acres of land a year is mined and reclaimed, mostly as pine plantations. 5 photos.

An aquifer air-conditioning system has been installed to cool the Student Recreation Center on the University of Alabama Campus. This research program encompasses the monitoring of the operation of the aquifer system and provision of emplacements to the system. The monitoring includes establishing the instrumentation, acquiring data, and analyzing the results. The instrumentation allows the measurement of water flow rates and corresponding temperatures, electrical energy input, aquifer temperatures at nineteen monitoring wells, and aquifer levels at six monitoring wells. Recent acquifer performance data indicate that 76% of the chill energy stored was recovered for the period Oct/86 - Sep/87 and 70% for the period Oct/87 - Sep/88. This is a substantial improvement over recoveries of 38% for the 1985 season and 55% for 1986. The overall coefficient of performance was 5.4 for Oct/86 - Sep/87 and 4.6 for Oct/87 - Sep/88. THe system has supplied 100% of the cooling with only about one-half of the energy input required by a conventional system. Some of the increased recovery of chilled water is a result of modifying the production well operation to reduce the regional flow of water toward the northwest. All warm water is withdrawn form the southeast wells, chilled, and injected in northwest wells. The cold water then withdrawn from the cold wells is used for air-conditioning but not reinjected into the aquifer. Additional flow control is provided by pumping (and discarding) water out of a southeast well, although the complete results of this new strategy are as yet unclear.

To improve energy delivery and enhance the electric transmission grid for the future, several government agencies currently are working together to establish a coordinated network of Federal energy corridors on Federal lands throughout the United States.

The Land and Facility Use Planning process provides a way to guide future site development and reuse based on the shared long-term goals and objectives of the Department, site and its stakeholders. Does not cancel other directives.

6. Land use 6.1. Total land use, land use change, and forests This chapter presents estimates of carbon sequestration (removal from the atmosphere) and emissions (release into the atmosphere) from forests, croplands, grasslands, and residential areas (urban trees, grass clippings, and food scraps) in the United States. In 2008, land use, land use change, and forests were responsible for estimated net carbon sequestration of 940 MMTCO2e (Table 31), representing 16 percent of total U.S. CO2

This publication describes the Biomass Program‚Äôs efforts to examine the intersection of land-use change and bioenergy production. It describes legislation requiring land-use change assessments, key data and modeling challenges, and the research needs to better assess and understand the impact of bioenergy policy on land-use decisions.

Background: The Rosebud Sioux Tribe (RST) is located in south central South Dakota near the Nebraska border. The nearest community of size is Valentine, Nebraska. The RST is a recipient of several Department of Energy grants, written by Distributed Generation Systems, Inc. (Disgen), for the purposes of assessing the feasibility of its wind resource and subsequently to fund the development of the project. Disgen, as the contracting entity to the RST for this project, has completed all the pre-construction activities, with the exception of the power purchase agreement and interconnection agreement, to commence financing and construction of the project. The focus of this financing is to maximize the economic benefits to the RST while achieving commercially reasonable rates of return and fees for the other parties involved. Each of the development activities required and its status is discussed below. Land Resource: The Owl Feather War Bonnet 30 MW Wind Project is located on RST Tribal Trust Land of approximately 680 acres adjacent to the community of St. Francis, South Dakota. The RST Tribal Council has voted on several occasions for the development of this land for wind energy purposes, as has the District of St. Francis. Actual footprint of wind farm will be approx. 50 acres. Wind Resource Assessment: The wind data has been collected from the site since May 1, 2001 and continues to be collected and analyzed. The latest projections indicate a net capacity factor of 42% at a hub height of 80 meters. The data has been collected utilizing an NRG 9300 Data logger System with instrumentation installed at 30, 40 and 65 meters on an existing KINI radio tower. The long-term annual average wind speed at 65-meters above ground level is 18.2 mph (8.1 mps) and 18.7 mph (8.4 mps) at 80-meters agl. The wind resource is excellent and supports project financing.

Land and Renewable Resources Argonne's environmental scientists conduct environmental impact statements to help the nation create a framework for developing renewable energy capabilities on public lands. Researchers in our Environmental Science division routinely conduct Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), which provide a rich and thorough analysis to determine what areas of public lands are best suited for solar, wind, and geothermal project development and assess the associated

In this paper we have considered commercial biomass energy in the context of overall agriculture and land-use change. We have described a model of energy, agriculture, and land-use and employed that model to examine the implications of commercial biomass energy or both energy sector and land-use change carbon emissions. In general we find that the introduction of biomass energy has a negative effect on the extent of unmanaged ecosystems. Commercial biomass introduces a major new land use which raises land rental rates, and provides an incentive to bring more land into production, increasing the rate of incursion into unmanaged ecosystems. But while the emergence of a commercial biomass industry may increase land-use change emissions, the overall effect is strongly to reduce total anthropogenic carbon emissions. Further, the higher the rate of commercial biomass energy productivity, the lower net emissions. Higher commercial biomass energy productivity, while leading to higher land-use change emissions, has a far stronger effect on fossil fuel carbon emissions. Highly productive and inexpensive commercial biomass energy technologies appear to have a substantial depressing effect on total anthropogenic carbon emissions, though their introduction raises the rental rate on land, providing incentives for greater rates of deforestation than in the reference case.

Land Transfers 2015 LANL Land Transfers 2015 Land transfer activities are planned to occur fiscal year 2016 which will require independent verification of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)'s sampling protocol and analyses. The former Sewage Treatment Plant within land tract A-16-D and the southern portion of A-16-E are on track for MARSSIM final status survey. The remainder of TA-21 will require verification once final D&D of structures is complete. The sampling activities for these

The Navajo Hopi Land Commission (NHLCO), together with its partners, will conduct a feasibility study (FS) of a program to develop renewable energy on the Paragon-Bisti ranch lands in northwestern New Mexico, which were set aside under the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act for the benefit of relocatees (defined as Navajo families living on Hopi Partitioned Lands as of December 22, 1974).

This study establishes a basis for long-range land-use planning to accommodate both present and projected DOE program requirements in Oak Ridge. In addition to technological requirements, this land-use plan incorporates in-depth ecological concepts that recognize multiple uses of land as a viable option. Neither environmental research nor technological operations need to be mutually exclusive in all instances. Unique biological areas, as well as rare and endangered species, need to be protected, and human and environmental health and safety must be maintained. The plan is based on the concept that the primary use of DOE land resources must be to implement the overall DOE mission in Oak Ridge. This document, along with the base map and overlay maps, provides a reasonably detailed description of the DOE Oak Ridge land resources and of the current and potential uses of the land. A description of the land characteristics, including geomorphology, agricultural productivity and soils, water courses, vegetation, and terrestrial and aquatic animal habitats, is presented to serve as a resource document. Essentially all DOE land in the Oak Ridge area is being fully used for ongoing DOE programs or has been set aside as protected areas.

Land classified as contaminated and disturbed across the United States has the potential to host developments of utility-scale solar power. This report examines the prospect of developing utility- and commercial-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) and solar photovoltaics (PV) technologies on degraded and environmentally contaminated lands. The potential for solar development on contaminated anddisturbed lands was assessed, and for the largest and highest solar resource sites, the economic impacts and feasibility were evaluated. Developing solar power on contaminated and disturbed lands can help create jobs and revitalize local and state economies, and selecting these sites over greenfield sites can potentially have permitting and environmental mitigation advantages. The U.S.Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot goals call for 632 GW of PV and 83 GW of CSP to be deployed by 2050. Conservative land-use estimates of this study (10 acres per megawatt) show that there are disturbed and environmentally contaminated lands throughout the country that could be suitable for utility-scale solar power, and, that there is sufficient land area to meet SunShot solar deployment goals. The purpose of this assessment is to improve the understanding of these sites and facilitate solar developers' selection of contaminated and disturbed sites for development.

The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) are hosting the annual Tribal Lands and Environment Forum. The four-day forum will feature special trainings, field trips, and breakout sessions focused on tribal water programs.

Energy Land Record System PIA, Bonneville Power Administration Land Record System PIA, Bonneville Power Administration Land Record System PIA, Bonneville Power Administration Land Record System PIA, Bonneville Power Administration (61.28 KB) More Documents & Publications PIA - Bonneville Power Adminstration Ethics Helpline Integrated Safety Management Workshop Registration, PIA, Idaho National Laboratory Occupational Medicine - Assistant PIA, Idaho National Laboratory

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has developed a {open_quotes}Blueprint for the Future{close_quotes} changing its organizational structure to better manage nearly 270 million acres of public lands and 540 million acres of subsurface mineral resources. Both efforts focus on ecosystem management and better business practices. The mission identified in the {open_quotes}Blueprint{close_quotes} is {open_quotes}to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.{close_quotes} Within this mission goals include maintaining healthy ecosystems and improving customer service and business practices. In conjunction with the Blueprint, the BLM developed strategies to streamline its headquarters and field organizational structures and to accommodate an ecosystem management approach. The new headquarters structure uses flexible interdisciplinary work teams in place of the programmatic hierarchical approach. These teams may be established on either a permanent or temporary basis. For example, one team is responsible for reporting on the condition of the public lands as an essential part of maintaining healthy ecosystems. Although it is too early to judge the success of the BLM`s reinvention efforts, insights can be gained from a review of these efforts. One insight is that most people are so used to thinking about the public lands on a statute by statute, resource by resource, project by project basis, that is difficult for them to adjust to the ecosystem management or streamlining paradigms.

Energy Land Record System PIA, Bonneville Power Administration Land Record System PIA, Bonneville Power Administration Land Record System PIA, Bonneville Power Administration Land Record System PIA, Bonneville Power Administration (61.28 KB) More Documents & Publications PIA - Bonneville Power Adminstration Ethics Helpline Integrated Safety Management Workshop Registration, PIA, Idaho National Laboratory Occupational Medicine - Assistant PIA, Idaho National Laboratory

KamLAND-Zen reports on a preliminary search for neutrinoless double-beta decay with 136Xe based on 114.8 live-days after the purification of the xenon loaded liquid scintillator. In this data, the problematic 110mAg background peak identified in previous searches is reduced by more than a factor of 10. By combining the KamLAND-Zen pre- and post-purification data, we obtain a preliminary lower limit on the 0??? decay half-life of T0?1/2 > 2.6◊1025 yr at 90% C.L. The search sensitivity will be enhanced with additional low background data after the purification. As a result, prospects for further improvements with future KamLAND-Zen upgrades are also presented.

KamLAND-Zen reports on a preliminary search for neutrinoless double-beta decay with 136Xe based on 114.8 live-days after the purification of the xenon loaded liquid scintillator. In this data, the problematic 110mAg background peak identified in previous searches is reduced by more than a factor of 10. By combining the KamLAND-Zen pre- and post-purification data, we obtain a preliminary lower limit on the 0őĹő≤ő≤ decay half-life of T0őĹ1/2 > 2.6√ó1025 yr at 90% C.L. The search sensitivity will be enhanced with additional low background data after the purification. As a result, prospects for further improvements with future KamLAND-Zen upgrades are alsomore¬†¬Ľ presented.¬ę¬†less

Land models, which have been developed by the modeling community in the past few decades to predict future states of ecosystems and climate, have to be critically evaluated for their performance skills of simulating ecosystem responses and feedback to climate change. Benchmarking is an emerging procedure to measure performance of models against a set of defined standards. This paper proposes a benchmarking framework for evaluation of land model performances and, meanwhile, highlights major challenges at this infant stage of benchmark analysis. The framework includes (1) targeted aspects of model performance to be evaluated, (2) a set of benchmarks as defined references to test model performance, (3) metrics to measure and compare performance skills among models so as to identify model strengths and deficiencies, and (4) model improvement. Land models are required to simulate exchange of water, energy, carbon and sometimes other trace gases between the atmosphere and land surface, and should be evaluated for their simulations of biophysical processes, biogeochemical cycles, and vegetation dynamics in response to climate change across broad temporal and spatial scales. Thus, one major challenge is to select and define a limited number of benchmarks to effectively evaluate land model performance. The second challenge is to develop metrics of measuring mismatches between models and benchmarks. The metrics may include (1) a priori thresholds of acceptable model performance and (2) a scoring system to combine dataĖmodel mismatches for various processes at different temporal and spatial scales. The benchmark analyses should identify clues of weak model performance to guide future development, thus enabling improved predictions of future states of ecosystems and climate. The near-future research effort should be on development of a set of widely acceptable benchmarks that can be used to objectively, effectively, and reliably evaluate fundamental properties of land models

Land models, which have been developed by the modeling community in the past few decades to predict future states of ecosystems and climate, have to be critically evaluated for their performance skills of simulating ecosystem responses and feedback to climate change. Benchmarking is an emerging procedure to measure performance of models against a set of defined standards. This paper proposes a benchmarking framework for evaluation of land model performances and, meanwhile, highlights major challenges at this infant stage of benchmark analysis. The framework includes (1) targeted aspects of model performance to be evaluated, (2) a set of benchmarks as defined references to test model performance, (3) metrics to measure and compare performance skills among models so as to identify model strengths and deficiencies, and (4) model improvement. Land models are required to simulate exchange of water, energy, carbon and sometimes other trace gases between the atmosphere and land surface, and should be evaluated for their simulations of biophysical processes, biogeochemical cycles, and vegetation dynamics in response to climate change across broad temporal and spatial scales. Thus, one major challenge is to select and define a limited number of benchmarks to effectively evaluate land model performance. The second challenge is to develop metrics of measuring mismatches between models and benchmarks. The metrics may include (1) a priori thresholds of acceptable model performance and (2) a scoring system to combine data model mismatches for various processes at different temporal and spatial scales. The benchmark analyses should identify clues of weak model performance to guide future development, thus enabling improved predictions of future states of ecosystems and climate. The near-future research effort should be on development of a set of widely acceptable benchmarks that can be used to objectively, effectively, and reliably evaluate fundamental properties of land models

Each year in Texas more than 1,500 acres of prime real estate and productive wetlands are destroyed along the Gulf shoreline and near the bay margins primarily as a result of coastal erosion and submergence. Wetland losses constitute about half of the total land losses. Historical analyses of maps and aerial photographs since the mid-1800s indicate that land losses are accelerating and that human activities are either directly or indirectly responsible for the increased losses, Natural decreases in sediment supply since the modern sea-level stillstand have been exacerbated by (1) river basin projects that reduce the volume of sediment transported to the coast and (2) coastal structures and navigation projects that prevent redistribution of littoral sediments along the coast. Erosion is primarily caused by high wave and current energy combined with an inadequate supply of sediment. Erosion is responsible for higher local rates of land loss than submergence, and the erosion losses are more perceptible, especially after major storms when the greatest losses occur. The principal components of submergence are subsidence and the eustatic rise in sea level. Together these components are recorded by tide gauges as a relative rise in sea level. Submergence converts uplands to wetlands and wetlands to open water. These surficial changes occur mostly on the coastal plain but are also observed on barrier islands and bayhead deltas and within entrenched valleys. Although compactional subsidence is a natural process operating in the Gulf Coast basin, most of the accelerated land-surface subsidence in Texas is attributed to extraction of shallow ground water or production of hydrocarbons at moderate depths. Faults activated by the withdrawal of these fluids concentrate the subsidence near the fault planes. Coastal land losses caused by dredging are less than those caused by erosion and submergence, but they constitute a growing percentage of total land losses.

This presentation discusses the process of analyzing the size and condition of producing land parcels concerning management and income relationships, tract location, and soil and water conservation structures. It reviews production schemes for crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa hay, and warm season grasses, as well as use for recreation. Management of tenants and leases is discussed concerning evaluation of crop share leases, cash renting, custom farming, and tenant selection. Factors involving subsidence due to underground mining by longwall or room and pillar extraction are discussed. Issues related to planning for and management of taxes, long-term improvements, and other land costs are presented.

Overdraft in the Santa Clara Valley, Calif., groundwater basin caused land surface subsidence over an area of 63,000 ha with a maximum depression of 3.6 m from 1912-67. Since cessation of overdraft and replenishment of groundwater levels in 1969, there has been no significant land surface subsidence. During the period of active subsidence, water well casings buckled, sewers lost capacity as a result of changes in slope, and roads and railroads had to be raised. These damages are estimated at over $130 million. (1 graph, 1 map, 6 photos, 2 references, 1 table)

The objective of this study was to gather information on the land use history of the Arid Land Ecology (ALE) Reserve so that current ecological research could be placed within a historical perspective. The data were gathered in the early 1980s by interviewing former users of the land and from previously published research (where available). Interviews with former land users of the ALE Reserve in Benton County, Washington, revealed that major land uses from 1880 to 1940 were homesteading, grazing, oil/gas production, and road building. Land use practices associated with grazing and homesteading have left the greatest impact on the landscape. Disturbed sites where succession is characterized by non-native species, plots where sagebrush was railed away, and sheep trails are major indications today of past land uses. Recent estimates of annual bunchgrass production do ALE do not support the widespread belief that bunchgrass were more productive during the homesteading era, though the invasion of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), Jim Hill mustard (Sisymbrium altissium), and other European alien plant species has altered pre-settlement succession patterns. 15 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.

On October 30, 1992, the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act became law. This Act transferred the responsibility for the management of the WIPP Land Withdrawal Area (WILWA) from the Secretary of the Interior to the Secretary of Energy. In accordance with sections 3(a)(1) and (3) of the Act, these lands {open_quotes}{hor_ellipsis}are withdrawn from all forms of entry, appropriation, and disposal under the public land laws{hor_ellipsis}{close_quotes}and are reserved for the use of the Secretary of Energy {open_quotes}{hor_ellipsis}for the construction, experimentation, operation, repair and maintenance, disposal, shutdown, monitoring, decommissioning, and other activities, associated with the purposes of WIPP as set forth in the Department of Energy National Security and Military Applications of Nuclear Energy Act of 1980 and this Act.{close_quotes}. As a complement to this LMP, a MOU has been executed between the DOE and the BLM, as required by section 4(d) of the Act. The state of New Mexico was consulted in the development of the MOU and the associated Statement of Work (SOW).

There are two competing effects of global land cover change on climate: an albedo effect which leads to heating when changing from grass/croplands to forest, and an evapotranspiration effect which tends to produce cooling. It is not clear which effect would dominate in a global land cover change scenario. We have performed coupled land/ocean/atmosphere simulations of global land cover change using the NCAR CAM3 atmospheric general circulation model. We find that replacement of current vegetation by trees on a global basis would lead to a global annual mean warming of 1.6 C, nearly 75% of the warming produced under a doubled CO{sub 2} concentration, while global replacement by grasslands would result in a cooling of 0.4 C. These results suggest that more research is necessary before forest carbon storage should be deployed as a mitigation strategy for global warming. In particular, high latitude forests probably have a net warming effect on the Earth's climate.

This document is to serve as a resource for Savannah River Site managers, planners, and SRS stakeholders by providing a general description of the site and land-use factors important to future use decisions and plans. The intent of this document is to be comprehensive in its review of SRS and the surrounding area.

The Arid Lands Ecology (ALE) facility is a 312-sq-km tract of land that lies on the western side of the Hanford Site in southcentral Washington. The US Atomic Energy Commission officially set aside this land area in 1967 to preserve shrub-steppe habitat and vegetation. The ALE facility is managed by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) for the US Department of Energy (DOE) for ecological research and education purposes. In 1971, the ALE facility was designated the Rattlesnake Hills Research Natural Area (RNA) as a result of an interagency federal cooperative agreement, and remains the largest RNA in Washington. it is also one of the few remaining large tracts of shrub-steppe vegetation in the state retaining a predominant preeuropean settlement character. This management plan provides policy and implementation methods for management of the ALE facilities consistent with both US Department of Energy Headquarters and the Richland Field Office decision (US Congress 1977) to designate and manage ALE lands as an RNA and as a component of the DOE National Environmental Research Park System.

The foundation of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management‚Äôs (LM) Goal 4, ‚ÄúOptimize the use of land and assets,‚ÄĚ is to establish environmentally sound and protective land...

This document establishes management plans directed to result in the land disposal of grouted wastes at the Hanford Grout Facilities in compliance with Federal, State of Washington, and Department of Energy land disposal restrictions. 9 refs., 1 fig.

Renewable Energy on Contaminated Lands Map of U.S. Map of Potential Limbo Land Sites for Consideration for Renewable Energy Technology Development. Enlarge image NREL's sustainability analysis includes work with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the potential for using "limbo lands" as sites for renewable energy-generating stations. Limbo lands are considered underused, formerly contaminated sites; they include former Superfund sites, landfills, brownfields, abandoned mine

Currently, in those four states` primary coal counties, some 5,000 to 6,000 acres are surface-mined each year. Since 1977, when Congress passed the landmark Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), coal-mining companies have been required to refill the cuts they make and return the earth`s surface to approximately its original contours. Reclamation here means to aggressively-and literally-lay the groundwork for future cultivation of these lands. SMCRA calls for detailed reclamation plans before mining takes place, backed later by evaluations of how vegatation progresses up until the time of bond release-five years after mining ends. And though SMCRA has succeeded in improving the aesthetic appeal of post-mined sites, it does nothing to ensure that the most appropriate land use will be implemented for the long run.

Reclamation has long been recognized as an essential action necessary to mitigate the degradation of land caused by mining activities. But, it is only within the past several decades that reclamation has become an integral component of the mineral extraction process. While the Metallic Mining Reclamation Act (MMRA) was passed in 1973, Wisconsin is yet to enact comprehensive state-wide reclamation requirements for mining other than metallic minerals and the code for metallic mining has yet to establish procedures and standards for reclamation success, specifically revegetation and postmining land use. This study integrates several interdisciplinary methodologies including a history of reclamation; an inventory and status report of mined lands; a critique and comparison of existing reclamation policy with previous state and current federal reclamation policies; in-field case studies of revegetation parameters, procedures, and performance standards; and an economic analysis of reclamation technology. This study makes three major recommendations: (1) The metallic mining code should be amended to establish vegetation parameters, measuring methods, and performance standards for revegetation success similar to those contained in the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA); (2) The metallic mining code should be amended to resolve semantic loopholes by clearly defining the endpoints of terms such as restoration, reclamation, and rehabilitation and by utilizing the reclamation continuum as a planning tool for determining acceptable postmining land use alternatives; and (3) Mandatory statewide nonmetallic legislation should be enacted to strengthen the mineral resource management program in Wisconsin by systematically and uniformly regulating the mining and reclamation of nonmetallic minerals, the state's most important mineral resource.

Through many years of research and technical interchange both at home and abroad, it is commonly recognized that paddy fields possess the functions of micro-climate adjustment, flood detection and prevention, soil and water conservation, river-flow stabilization, soil salinization prevention, water purification, groundwater recharge, rural area beautification and environmental protection which are all beneficial to the public. In recent years, the global environmental problems have become a series concern throughout the world. These include the broken ozone layer, green house effects, acid rain, land desertion, tropical rain forest disappearing etc. Among them, rain forest disappearing draws great attention. Both rain forests and paddy fields are in tropical areas. They have similar functions and are disappearing because of economic pressure. This paper describes the special functions of paddy fields on water purification, ground water recharge and prevention of land subsidence, and reiterates groundwater utilization and land subsidence prevention measures. In view of the importance of groundwater resources, paddy fields, which can not be replaced by any other artificial groundwater recharge facilities, should not be reduced in acreage, nor can they be left idle. Paddy fields shall be properly maintained and managed in order to strengthen their special functions in the years to come even under heavy pressure from foreign countries.

The Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) enacted in 1984 required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to evaluate all listed and characteristic hazardous wastes according to a strict schedule and to develop requirements by which disposal of these wastes would be protective of human health and the environment. The implementing regulations for accomplishing this statutory requirement are established within the Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) program. The LDR regulations (40 CFR Part 268) impose significant requirements on waste management operations and environmental restoration activities at DOE sites. For hazardous wastes restricted by statute from land disposal, EPA is required to set levels or methods of treatment that substantially reduce the waste`s toxicity or the likelihood that the waste`s hazardous constituents will migrate. Upon the specified LDR effective dates, restricted wastes that do not meet treatment standards are prohibited from land disposal unless they qualify for certain variances or exemptions. This document provides an overview of the LDR Program.

The Navajo Hopi Land Commission (NHLCO), together with its partners, will conduct a feasibility study (FS) of a program to develop renewable energy on the Paragon-Bisti ranch lands in northwestern New Mexico, which were set aside under the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act for the benefit of relocatees (defined as Navajo families living on Hopi Partitioned Lands as of December 22, 1974).

DOE has prepared the EIS to evaluate the potential environmental impacts associated with implementing a comprehensive land-use plan (CLUP) for the Hanford Site for at least the next 50 years. DOE is expected to use this land-use plan in its decision-making process to establish what is the ‚Äúhighest and best use‚ÄĚ of the land (41 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] 101-47, ‚ÄúFederal Property Management Regulations‚ÄĚ). The final selection of a land-use map, land-use policies, and implementing procedures would create the working CLUP when they are adopted through the ROD for the EIS.

The Green Lands Blue Water 2014 Fall Conference will be held from November 19‚Äď20, 2014, at the Richland Community College in Decatur, Illinois. The event will focus on bioenergy and sustainable agriculture and explore topics ranging from logistics, energy conversion technologies, and markets for grass biomass. BETO Sustainability Program Technology Manager Kristen Johnson will be speaking about the Energy Department‚Äôs perspective on sustainable bioenergy landscapes and will focus on BETO‚Äôs recent work with landscape design. The conference will be November 19‚Äď20 only. On November 18, participants may choose to participate in a pre-conference field tour.

An area planted in 2004 on Bent Mountain in Pike County was shifted to the Department of Energy project to centralize an area to become a demonstration site. An additional 98.3 acres were planted on Peabody lands in western Kentucky and Bent Mountain to bring the total area under study by this project to 556.5 acres as indicated in Table 2. Major efforts this quarter include the implementation of new plots that will examine the influence of differing geologic material on tree growth and survival, water quality and quantity and carbon sequestration. Normal monitoring and maintenance was conducted and additional instrumentation was installed to monitor the new areas planted.

The many ways that people have used and managed land throughout history has emerged as a primary cause of land-cover change around the world. Thus, land use and land management increasingly represent a fundamental source of change in the global environment. Despite their global importance, however, many decisions about the management and use of land are made with scant attention to ecological impacts. Thus, ecologists' knowledge of the functioning of Earth's ecosystems is needed to broaden the scientific basis of decisions on land use and management. In response to this need, the Ecological Society of America established a committee to examine the ways that land-use decisions are made and the ways that ecologists could help inform those decisions. This paper reports the scientific findings of that committee. Five principles of ecological science have particular implications for land use and can assure that fundamental processes of Earth's ecosystems are sustained. These ecological principles deal with time, species, place, dis- turbance, and the landscape. The recognition that ecological processes occur within a temporal setting and change over time is fundamental to analyzing the effects of land use. In addition, individual species and networks of interacting species have strong and far-reaching effects on ecological processes. Furthermore, each site or region has a unique set of organisms and abiotic conditions influencing and constraining ecological processes. Distur- bances are important and ubiquitous ecological events whose effects may strongly influence population, com- munity, and ecosystem dynamics. Finally, the size, shape, and spatial relationships of habitat patches on the landscape affect the structure and function of ecosystems. The responses of the land to changes in use and management by people depend on expressions of these fundamental principles in nature. These principles dictate several guidelines for land use. The guidelines give practical

Land use/land cover (LULC) data are a vital component for nonpoint source pollution modeling. Most watershed hydrology and pollutant loading models use, in some capacity, LULC information to generate runoff and pollutant loading estimates. Simple equation methods predict runoff and pollutant loads using runoff coefficients or pollutant export coefficients that are often correlated to LULC type. Complex models use input variables and parameters to represent watershed characteristics and pollutant buildup and washoff rates as a function of LULC type. Whether using simple or complex models an accurate LULC dataset with an appropriate spatial resolution and level of detail is paramount for reliable predictions. The study presented in this paper compared and evaluated several LULC dataset sources for application in urban environmental modeling. The commonly used USGS LULC datasets have coarser spatial resolution and lower levels of classification than other LULC datasets. In addition, the USGS datasets do not accurately represent the land use in areas that have undergone significant land use change during the past two decades. We performed a watershed modeling analysis of three urban catchments in Los Angeles, California, USA to investigate the relative difference in average annual runoff volumes and total suspended solids (TSS) loads when using the USGS LULC dataset versus using a more detailed and current LULC dataset. When the two LULC datasets were aggregated to the same land use categories, the relative differences in predicted average annual runoff volumes and TSS loads from the three catchments were 8 to 14% and 13 to 40%, respectively. The relative differences did not have a predictable relationship with catchment size.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30"x30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on land cover, slope, road proximity, high-resolution imagery, and other data sets. The LandScan data set was developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient populations at risk.

Department of Energy Planning ¬Ľ Coordination of Federal Transmission Permitting on Federal Lands (216(h)) Coordination of Federal Transmission Permitting on Federal Lands (216(h)) On October 23, 2009, the Department of Energy and eight other Federal agencies entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to improve coordination among project applicants, federal agencies, states and tribes involved in the siting and permitting process for electric transmission facilities on Federal land.

INL Comprehensive Land Use and Environmental Stewardship Report The Idaho National Laboratory announced recently that the Comprehensive Land Use and Environmental Stewardship (CLUES) Report for Fiscal Year 2011 has been finalized. The CLUES Report compliments the INL Ten Year Site Plan and provides a look ahead to INL facilities 10, 30 and 100 years into the future. The CLUES Report discusses how land on the INL will be managed and the process for reviewing requests. The report represents a

Several Countries: Evaluation for Regulatory Input | Department of Energy Approaches used for Clearance of Lands from Nuclear Facilities among Several Countries: Evaluation for Regulatory Input Approaches used for Clearance of Lands from Nuclear Facilities among Several Countries: Evaluation for Regulatory Input The study entitled, "Approaches used for Clearance of Lands from Nuclear Facilities among Several Countries: Evaluation for Regulatory Input," focuses on the issue of

Since 1901 Calculations Provide Independent Confirmation of Global Land Warming Since 1901 NERSC Calculations Provide Independent Confirmation of Global Land Warming Since 1901 September 9, 2013 Contact: Jon Bashor, jbashor@lbl.gov, 510-486-5849 campo.jpg These maps show the changes in air temperatures over land as measured using thermometers (left side) and as calculated by the 20th Century Reanalysis project (left side). While more than 80 percent of the observed variation is captured by

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" X 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. The LandScan data set was developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient populations at risk.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

To address a pressing need to better understand the behavior and complex interaction of ice sheets within the global Earth system, significant development of continental-scale, dynamical ice-sheet models is underway. The associated verification and validation process of these models is being coordinated through a new, robust, python-based extensible software package, the Land Ice Verification and Validation toolkit (LIVV). This release provides robust and automated verification and a performance evaluation on LCF platforms. The performance V&Vmore¬†¬Ľ involves a comprehensive comparison of model performance relative to expected behavior on a given computing platform. LIVV operates on a set of benchmark and test data, and provides comparisons for a suite of community prioritized tests, including configuration and parameter variations, bit-4-bit evaluation, and plots of tests where differences occur.¬ę¬†less

To address a pressing need to better understand the behavior and complex interaction of ice sheets within the global Earth system, significant development of continental-scale, dynamical ice-sheet models is underway. The associated verification and validation process of these models is being coordinated through a new, robust, python-based extensible software package, the Land Ice Verification and Validation toolkit (LIVV). This release provides robust and automated verification and a performance evaluation on LCF platforms. The performance V&V involves a comprehensive comparison of model performance relative to expected behavior on a given computing platform. LIVV operates on a set of benchmark and test data, and provides comparisons for a suite of community prioritized tests, including configuration and parameter variations, bit-4-bit evaluation, and plots of tests where differences occur.

The goal of this study is to examine the marginal lands in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies and evaluate their biomass productivity potential. Twelve categories of marginal lands are identified using the Global Agro-Ecological Zones system of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

This book emphasizes the natural factors affecting slope stability, including soils and geomorphic, hydrologic, vegetative, and seismic factors and provides information on landslide classification, global damage, and analytical methods. The effects of various extensive and intensive land management practices on slope stability are discussed together with methods for prediction, avoidance, and control. Examples of terrain evaluation procedures and land management practices are presented.

With rising concern about the increase of the CO{sub 2} concentration in the earth`s atmosphere there is considerable interest in various land-use based mitigation options, like afforestation of surplus agricultural land with or without subsequent harvest; improved forest management; strategies that rely on wood plantations managed in short rotation or agricultural crops with high yields to produce bioenergy, timber and other biomass products. In the first step of this study, the net carbon benefits of such strategies will be calculated per unit of land, i.e., per hectare, because it is assumed that land is the limiting resource for such strategies in the future, and thus, the benefits per unit land need to be optimized. For these calculations a computer model has been developed. The results take into account the time dependence of carbon storage in the biosphere and are shown graphically both for land and for plantation systems with constant output of biomass over time. In the second step, these results will be combined with data on available land for Austria. The potential contribution of each of the above strategies towards mitigating the Austrian CO{sub 2} emissions will be demonstrated. A comparison to other renewable mitigation options, like solar thermal or photovoltaics, will be drawn in terms of available land resources and overall CO{sub 2} reductions.

This technical report uses an established geospatial methodology to estimate the technical potential for renewable energy on tribal lands for the purpose of allowing Tribes to prioritize the development of renewable energy resources either for community scale on-tribal land use or for revenue generating electricity sales.

Local land use planning has profound impacts on environmental quality; however, few empirical studies have been conducted to systematically measure local land use plans' environmental assessment quality and to identify the factors influencing it. This paper analyzes the quality of 40 Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) of local jurisdictions' land use plans in California. A plan evaluation protocol defined by five core components and sixty-three indicators is developed to measure the quality of local land use plans' EIRs. The descriptive results indicate that the local jurisdictions produce relatively good quality on its EIRs, but there is still much room for improvement. There are large variations in the quality of EIRs across local jurisdictions. The regression results further highlight three major factors that can significantly influence local land use plan's EIR quality: number of planners, plan updating ability, and development pressure.

Savannah River Site Land Use Plan - May, 2013 i SRNS-RP-2013-00162 Savannah River Site Land Use Plan - May, 2013 i Table of Contents 1.0 - Purpose p1 2.0 - Executive Summary p1 3.0 - SRS Land Use Overview p5 Assumptions Current Land Use Leases, Transfers and Other Land Use Actions Future Land Use Land Use Issues 4.0 - Land Use Planning and Control for Existing Missions p13 Cleanup, Production and Support Missions Natural and Cultural Resource Management 5.0 - Process for Future Land Use Changes

Land and facility use planning and decisions at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site are guided by a comprehensive site planning process in accordance with Department of Energy Policy 430.1, 'Land and Facility Use Policy,' that integrates mission, economic, ecologic, social, and cultural factors. The INL Ten-Year Site Plan, prepared in accordance with Department of Energy Order 430.1B, 'Real Property Asset Management,' outlines the vision and strategy to transform INL to deliver world-leading capabilities that will enable the Department of Energy to accomplish its mission. Land use planning is the overarching function within real property asset management that integrates the other functions of acquisition, recapitalization, maintenance, disposition, real property utilization, and long-term stewardship into a coordinated effort to ensure current and future mission needs are met. All land and facility use projects planned at the INL Site are considered through a formal planning process that supports the Ten-Year Site Plan. This Comprehensive Land Use and Environmental Stewardship Report describes that process. The land use planning process identifies the current condition of existing land and facility assets and the scope of constraints across INL and in the surrounding region. Current land use conditions are included in the Comprehensive Land Use and Environmental Stewardship Report and facility assets and scope of constraints are discussed in the Ten-Year Site Plan. This report also presents the past, present, and future uses of land at the INL Site that are considered during the planning process, as well as outlining the future of the INL Site for the 10, 30, and 100-year timeframes.

Closure of the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) has been completed. The future land use of the site is designated as a National Wildlife Refuge. A joint effort between Kaiser-Hill, Department of Energy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency, State of Colorado, and other stakeholders was initiated to provide direction for developing the final land configuration. Through early identification of issues and developing mutually agreeable solutions, the final land configuration of the site was successfully completed. (authors)

Land Management Practices More Critical as Biofuels Use Grows Land Management Practices More Critical as Biofuels Use Grows Climate Simulations Run at NERSC Show Cultivation Causes Carbon Loss in Soil August 3, 2015 Angela Hardin, (630) 252-5501, media@anl.gov LandManagement (a) Total SOC simulated by CLM-Crop over the contiguous United States. (b) Total SOC from the IGBP over the same domain as in (a). (c) Percent difference between (a) and (b). The handling of agricultural crop residues

In preparation for the fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international community is developing new advanced Earth System Models (ESM) to assess the combined effects of human activities (e.g. land use and fossil fuel emissions) on the carbon-climate system. In addition, four Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios of the future (2005-2100) are being provided by four Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) teams to be used as input to the ESMs for future carbon-climate projections (Moss et al., 2010). The diversity of approaches and requirements among IAMs and ESMs for tracking land-use change, along with the dependence of model projections on land-use history, presents a challenge for effectively passing data between these communities and for smoothly transitioning from the historical estimates to future projections. Here, a harmonized set of land-use scenarios are presented that smoothly connects historical reconstructions of land use with future projections, in the format required by ESMs.

Includes information on the electricity use and needs of Indian households and tribes, the comparative electricity rates that Indian households are paying, and the potential for renewable resources development of Indian lands.

The energy grant provided the resources to evaluate the wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal and solar resource potential on all Penobscot Indian Naiton's Tribal lands. The two objectives address potential renewable energy resources available on tribal lands and energy efficiency measures to be taken after comprehensive energy audits of commercial facilities. Also, a Long Term Strategic Energy Plan was developed along with a plan to reduce high energy costs.

Mapper RE-Powering America's Land Mapper The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) RE-Powering Mapper, a series of Google Earth files, makes it possible to view EPA's information about renewable energy potential on contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites, alongside other information contained in Google Earth. This tool screens more than 66,000 EPA- and state-tracked sites, comprising over 35 million acres. Using screening criteria developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of

Protecting Lab land and the creatures that inhabit it Community Connections: Your link to news and opportunities from Los Alamos National Laboratory Latest Issue: September 1, 2016 all issues All Issues ¬Ľ submit Protecting Lab land and the creatures that inhabit it Working to protect endangered species and minimizing fire danger. April 1, 2013 View of Sangre de Christo mauntains from overlook on NM502 Mexican Spotted Owls live on Lab property. Contact Editor Linda Anderman Email Community

at UMTRCA Title II Sites in Wyoming - 16614 (Conference) | SciTech Connect Conference: Transfer and Transition: Interagency Coordination for Managing Public Lands at UMTRCA Title II Sites in Wyoming - 16614 Citation Details In-Document Search Title: Transfer and Transition: Interagency Coordination for Managing Public Lands at UMTRCA Title II Sites in Wyoming - 16614 By the end of fiscal year 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management (LM) is anticipating adding 17

Since the implementation of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) in May of 1978, many opportunities have been lost for the reforestation of surface mines in the eastern United States. Research has shown that excessive compaction of spoil material in the backfilling and grading process is the biggest impediment to the establishment of productive forests as a post-mining land use (Ashby, 1998, Burger et al., 1994, Graves et al., 2000). Stability of mine sites was a prominent concern among regulators and mine operators in the years immediately following the implementation of SMCRA. These concerns resulted in the highly compacted, flatly graded, and consequently unproductive spoils of the early post-SMCRA era. However, there is nothing in the regulations that requires mine sites to be overly compacted as long as stability is achieved. It has been cultural barriers and not regulatory barriers that have contributed to the failure of reforestation efforts under the federal law over the past 27 years. Efforts to change the perception that the federal law and regulations impede effective reforestation techniques and interfere with bond release must be implemented. Demonstration of techniques that lead to the successful reforestation of surface mines is one such method that can be used to change perceptions and protect the forest ecosystems that were indigenous to these areas prior to mining. The University of Kentucky initiated a large-scale reforestation effort to address regulatory and cultural impediments to forest reclamation in 2003. During the three years of this project 383,000 trees were planted on over 556 acres in different physiographic areas of Kentucky (Table 1, Figure 1). Species used for the project were similar to those that existed on the sites before mining was initiated (Table 2). A monitoring program was undertaken to evaluate growth and survival of the planted species as a function of spoil characteristics and

There is a strong societal need to evaluate and understand the sustainability of biofuels, especially because of the significant increases in production mandated by many countries, including the United States. Sustainability will be a strong factor in the regulatory environment and investments in biofuels. Biomass feedstock production is an important contributor to environmental, social, and economic impacts from biofuels. This study presents a systems approach where the agricultural, energy, and environmental sectors are considered as components of a single system, and environmental liabilities are used as recoverable resources for biomass feedstock production. We focus on efficient use of land and water resources. We conducted a spatial analysis evaluating marginal land and degraded water resources to improve feedstock productivity with concomitant environmental restoration for the state of Nebraska. Results indicate that utilizing marginal land resources such as riparian and roadway buffer strips, brownfield sites, and marginal agricultural land could produce enough feedstocks to meet a maximum of 22% of the energy requirements of the state compared to the current supply of 2%. Degraded water resources such as nitrate-contaminated groundwater and wastewater were evaluated as sources of nutrients and water to improve feedstock productivity. Spatial overlap between degraded water and marginal land resources was found to be as high as 96% and could maintain sustainable feedstock production on marginal lands. Other benefits of implementing this strategy include feedstock intensification to decrease biomass transportation costs, restoration of contaminated water resources, and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Winnebago Wind Energy Study evaluated facility-scale, community-scale and commercial-scale wind development on Winnebago Tribal lands in northeastern Nebraska. The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska has been pursuing wind development in various forms for nearly ten years. Wind monitoring utilizing loaned met towers from NREL took place during two different periods. From April 2001 to April 2002, a 20-meter met tower monitored wind data at the WinnaVegas Casino on the far eastern edge of the Winnebago reservation in Iowa. In late 2006, a 50-meter tower was installed, and subsequently monitored wind data at the WinnaVegas site from late 2006 through late 2008. Significant challenges with the NREL wind monitoring equipment limited the availability of valid data, but based on the available data, average wind speeds between 13.6 ‚Äď 14.3 miles were indicated, reflecting a 2+/3- wind class. Based on the anticipated cost of energy produced by a WinnaVegas wind turbine, and the utility policies and rates in place at this time, a WinnaVegas wind project did not appear to make economic sense. However, if substantial grant funding were available for energy equipment at the casino site, and if either Woodbury REC backup rates were lower, or NIPCO was willing to pay more for wind power, a WinnaVegas wind project could be feasible. With funding remaining in the DOE-funded project budget,a number of other possible wind project locations on the Winnebago reservation were considered. in early 2009, a NPPD-owned met tower was installed at a site identified in the study pursuant to a verbal agreement with NPPD which provided for power from any ultimately developed project on the Western Winnebago site to be sold to NPPD. Results from the first seven months of wind monitoring at the Western Winnebago site were as expected at just over 7 meters per second at 50-meter tower height, reflecting Class 4 wind speeds, adequate for commercial development. If wind data collected in the remaining

Generic land management actions affecting geothermal commerializtion in Pacific River states are reviewed. Specific federal land management actions affecting geothermal prospects in California and the Pacific Northwest are described. (MHR)

This is Volume 1 of an operations manual designed to facilitate the development of biomonitoring strategies for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Lands. It is one component of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Lands Biomonitoring Operations Manual. The Volume contains the Introduction to the Manual, background information on monitoring, and procedures for developing a biomonitoring strategy for Service lands. The purpose of the Biomonitoring Operations Manual is to provide an approach to develop and implement biomonitoring activities to assess the status and trends of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service trust resources. It also provides field sampline methods and documentation protocols for contaminant monitoring activities. The strategy described in the Manual has been designed as a stand alone process to characterize the presence of contaminants on lands managed by the Service. This process can be sued to develop a monitoring program for any tract of real estate with potential threats from on- or off-site contaminants. Because the process was designed to address concerns for Service lands that span the United States from Alaska to the Tropical Islands, it has a generic format that can be used in al types of ecosystems, however, significant site specific informtion is required to complete the Workbook and make the process work successfully.

Land use change is one major threat to freshwater biodiversity, and land use change scenarios can help to assess threats from future land use change, thereby guiding proactive conservation decisions. Furthermore, our goal was to identify which range-restricted freshwater fish species are most likely to be affected by land use change and to determine where threats to these species from future land use change in the conterminous United States are most pronounced.

The Navajo Hopi Land Commission Office (NHLCO), a Navajo Nation executive branch agency has conducted activities to determine capacity-building, institution-building, outreach and management activities to initiate the development of large-scale renewable energy - 100 megawatt (MW) or larger - generating projects on land in Northwestern New Mexico in the first year of a multi-year program. The Navajo Hopi Land Commission Renewable Energy Development Project (NREP) is a one year program that will develop and market a strategic business plan; form multi-agency and public-private project partnerships; compile site-specific solar, wind and infrastructure data; and develop and use project communication and marketing tools to support outreach efforts targeting the public, vendors, investors and government audiences.

The LandCast 2030 data set is an empirically-informed spatial distribution of projected population of the contiguous U.S. for 2030 compiled on a 30" x 30" latitute/longitude grid. Population projections of county level numbers were developed using a modified version of the U.S. Census's projection methodology - with the U.S. Census's official projection as the benchmark. Projected census counts were apportioned to each grid cell based on locally adaptive likelihood coefficients, which are based on land cover, slope, road proximity, distances to larger cities, a moving average of current population, and other data sets. The LandCast 2030 data set was developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient populations at risk.

This document describes the contents of a digital database containing maximum potential aboveground biomass, land use, and estimated biomass and carbon data for 1980 and describes a methodology that may be used to extend this data set to 1990 and beyond based on population and land cover data. The biomass data and carbon estimates are for woody vegetation in Tropical Africa. These data were collected to reduce the uncertainty associated with the possible magnitude of historical releases of carbon from land use change. Tropical Africa is defined here as encompassing 22.7 x 10{sup 6} km{sup 2} of the earth`s land surface and includes those countries that for the most part are located in Tropical Africa. Countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and in southern Africa (i.e., Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Western Sahara) have maximum potential biomass and land cover information but do not have biomass or carbon estimate. The database was developed using the GRID module in the ARC/INFO{sup TM} geographic information system. Source data were obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the U.S. National Geophysical Data Center, and a limited number of biomass-carbon density case studies. These data were used to derive the maximum potential and actual (ca. 1980) aboveground biomass-carbon values at regional and country levels. The land-use data provided were derived from a vegetation map originally produced for the FAO by the International Institute of Vegetation Mapping, Toulouse, France.

Meeting to Discuss Camp George West Land Exchange For more information contact: Kerry Masson (303) 275-4083 e:mail: kerry_masson@nrel.gov Golden, Colo., Sept. 1, 1998 ¬ó The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will host a meeting Sept. 16 to inform the community surrounding NREL about a land exchange involving DOE, Jefferson County and the state of Colorado. The property to be exchanged involves the Camp George West site which borders NREL's main

As a contribution to International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Project, we are providing new analysis approaches, benchmarking tools, and science leadership. The goal of ILAMB is to assess and improve the performance of land models through international cooperation and to inform the design of new measurement campaigns and field studies to reduce uncertainties associated with key biogeochemical processes and feedbacks. ILAMB is expected to be a primary analysis tool for CMIP6 and future model-data intercomparison experiments. This team has developed initial prototype benchmarking systems for ILAMB, which will be improved and extended to include ocean model metrics and diagnostics.

As a contribution to International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Project, we are providing new analysis approaches, benchmarking tools, and science leadership. The goal of ILAMB is to assess and improve the performance of land models through international cooperation and to inform the design of new measurement campaigns and field studies to reduce uncertainties associated with key biogeochemical processes and feedbacks. ILAMB is expected to be a primary analysis tool for CMIP6 and future model-data intercomparison experiments. This team has developed initial prototype benchmarking systems for ILAMB, which will be improved and extended to include ocean model metrics and diagnostics.

PERCENT FEDERAL LAND FOR OIL/GAS FIELD OUTLINES The VBA code below calculates the area percent of a first polygon layer (e.g. oil/gas field outlines) that are within a second polygon layer (e.g. federal land) and writes out the fraction as an attribute for the first polygon layer. If you make buffered well field outline polygons using the VBA code in BUFFERED_WELL_FIELD_OUTLINES.doc, you will have a feature class with the attribute PCTFEDLAND to use as the first polygon layer. If not, add the

Approximately 70 percent of all U.S. military training lands are located in arid and semi-arid areas. Training activities in such areas frequently adversely affect vegetation, damaging plants and reducing the resilience of vegetation to recover once disturbed. Fugitive dust resulting from a loss of vegetation creates additional problems for human health, increasing accidents due to decreased visibility, and increasing maintenance costs for roads, vehicles, and equipment. Under conventional technologies to mitigate these impacts, it is estimated that up to 35 percent of revegetation projects in arid areas will fail due to unpredictable natural environmental conditions, such as drought, and reclamation techniques that were inadequate to restore vegetative cover in a timely and cost-effective manner. New reclamation and restoration techniques are needed in desert ranges to help mitigate the adverse effects of military training and other activities to arid-land environments. In 1999, a cooperative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the US. Department of Defense (DoD), and selected university scientists was undertaken to focus on mitigating military impacts in arid lands. As arid lands are impacted due to DoD and DOE activities, biological and soil resources are gradually lost and the habitat is altered. A conceptual model of that change in habitat quality is described for varying levels of disturbance in the Mojave Desert. As the habitat quality degrades and more biological and physical resources are lost from training areas, greater costs are required to return the land to sustainable levels. The purpose of this manual is to assist land managers in recognizing thresholds associated with habitat degradation and provide reclamation planning and techniques that can reduce the costs of mitigation for these impacted lands to ensure sustainable use of these lands. The importance of reclamation planning is described in this manual with suggestions about

Donna Project Plan: Electrochrome Window Demonstration Measurement and Verification Report This report details the measurement and verification tools and methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of electrochromic windows at the Donna Land Port of Entry, an international border crossing between the United States and Mexico located in Texas.

The Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) evaluated several power resource alternatives under consideration by the Bonneville Power Administration in its Resource Program Environmental Impact Statement (RPEIS). The purpose of this evaluation was to determine the potential impacts of each alternative in terms of land use and employment. We reviewed the literature that describes land-use and employment impacts to derive estimates of each type of effect. These estimates were scaled to a per-megawatt basis for use as multipliers in the RPEIS analysis. Multipliers for employment were taken from the literature and developed from power plant capital cost estimates. Land-use multipliers were taken from the literature or estimated from existing plants. In this report we compared information sources and estimates to develop the most applicable multipliers. Employment levels required (in terms of employee years per MW of plant capacity) for the construction and operation phases of each energy-generating resource alternative analyzed are shown. The amounts of land required (in terms of acres per MW capacity) for the construction and operation phases of each energy-generating resource alternatives analyzed are also shown.

Long-term measurements of global warming impact coupled with spatially explicit modeling suggests that both climate benefits and the production potential of cellulosic crops grown on marginal lands of the US North Central region are substantial but will be insufficient to meet long-term biofuel needs.

The Interior Department announced on August 6 that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that encourages appropriate development of renewable energy projects on public lands that are set aside for defense-related purposes, and on other onshore and offshore areas near military installations.

Remote sensing data from satellites have provided valuable information on the state of the earth for several decades. Since March 2000, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on board NASA s Terra and Aqua satellites have been providing estimates of several land parameters useful in understanding earth system processes at global, continental, and regional scales. However, the HDF-EOS file format, specialized software needed to process the HDF-EOS files, data volume, and the high spatial and temporal resolution of MODIS data make it difficult for users wanting to extract small but valuable amounts of information from the MODIS record. To overcome this usability issue, the NASA-funded Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for Biogeochemical Dynamics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) developed a Web service that provides subsets of MODIS land products using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). The ORNL DAAC MODIS subsetting Web service is a unique way of serving satellite data that exploits a fairly established and popular Internet protocol to allow users access to massive amounts of remote sensing data. The Web service provides MODIS land product subsets up to 201 x 201 km in a non-proprietary comma delimited text file format. Users can programmatically query the Web service to extract MODIS land parameters for real time data integration into models, decision support tools or connect to workflow software. Information regarding the MODIS SOAP subsetting Web service is available on the World Wide Web (WWW) at http://daac.ornl.gov/modiswebservice.

Land use change may exert a negative impact on environmental quality. A state‚Äďimpact‚Äďstate (SIS) model describing a state transform under certain impacts has been integrated into land use planning (LUP) environmental impact assessment (LUPEA). This logical model is intuitive and easy to understand, but the exploration of impact is essential to establish the indicator system and to identify the scope of land use environmental impact when it is applied to a specific region. In this study, we investigated environmental driving forces from land use planning (LUPF), along with the conception, components, scope, and impact of LUPF. This method was illustrated by a case study in Zoucheng, China. Through the results, we concluded that (1) the LUPF on environment are impacts originated from the implementation of LUP on a regional environment, which are characterized by four aspects: magnitude, direction, action point, and its owner; (2) various scopes of LUPF on individual environmental elements based on different standards jointly define the final scope of LUPEA; (3) our case study in Zoucheng demonstrates the practicability of this proposed approach; (4) this method can be embedded into LUPEA with direction, magnitudes, and scopes of the LUPF on individual elements obtained, and the identified indicator system can be directly employed into LUPEA and (5) the assessment helps to identify key indicators and to set up a corresponding strategy to mitigate the negative impact of LUP on the environment, which are two important objectives of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in LUP. - Highlights: ‚ÄĘ Environmental driving forces from land use planning (LUPF) are investigated and categorized. ‚ÄĘ Our method can obtains the direction, magnitudes and scopes of environmental driving forces. ‚ÄĘ The LUPEA scope is determined by the combination of various scopes of LUPF on individual elements. ‚ÄĘ LUPF assessment can be embedded into LUPEA. ‚ÄĘ The method can help to

This paper presents a method based on scenario analysis to compare the environmental effects of different spatial plan policies in a range of possible futures. The study aimed at contributing to overcome two limitations encountered in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for spatial planning: poor exploration of how the future might unfold, and poor consideration of alternative plan policies. Scenarios were developed through what-if functions and spatial modeling in a Geographical Information System (GIS), and consisted in maps that represent future land uses under different assumptions on key driving forces. The use of land use scenarios provided a representation of how the different policies will look like on the ground. This allowed gaining a better understanding of the policies' implications on the environment, which could be measured through a set of indicators. The research undertook a case-study approach by developing and assessing land use scenarios for the future growth of Caia, a strategically-located and fast-developing town in rural Mozambique. The effects of alternative spatial plan policies were assessed against a set of environmental performance indicators, including deforestation, loss of agricultural land, encroachment of flood-prone areas and wetlands and access to water sources. In this way, critical environmental effects related to the implementation of each policy were identified and discussed, suggesting possible strategies to address them. - Graphical abstract: Display Omitted Research Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The method contributes to two critical issues in SEA: exploration of the future and consideration of alternatives. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Future scenarios are used to test the environmental performance of different spatial plan policies in uncertainty conditions. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Spatially-explicit land use scenarios provide a representation of how different policies will look like on the ground.

Washington | Department of Energy 15: Proposed Conveyance of Land at the Hanford Site, Richland, Washington EA-1915: Proposed Conveyance of Land at the Hanford Site, Richland, Washington Summary The EA assesses the potential environmental effects of conveying approximately 1,641 acres of Hanford Site land to the local economic development organization, the Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC), a DOE-recognized Community Reuse Organization. TRIDEC has requested the transfer of land located

We have successfully built and operated a source deployment system for the KamLAND detector. This system was used to position radioactive sources throughout the delicate 1-kton liquid scintillator volume, while meeting stringent material cleanliness, material compatibility, and safety requirements. The calibration data obtained with this device were used to fully characterize detector position and energy reconstruction biases. As a result, the uncertainty in the size of the detector fiducial volume was reduced by a factor of two. Prior to calibration with this system, the fiducial volume was the largest source of systematic uncertainty in measuring the number of antineutrinos detected by KamLAND. This paper describes the design, operation and performance of this unique calibration system.

Abandoned Mined Lands (AML) are lands that were mined prior to implementation of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) in 1977, but were inadequately reclaimed. Re-mining of AML is being conducted on a routine basis by coal-mining operations in eastern states such as Virginia. Re-mining is a potentially important means of reclaiming AML. However, under current policies, re-mining operations often fail to permit and reclaim priority 1, 2, and 3 AML, especially those areas which present the most severe environmental problems. This paper describes policy issues which affect the potential for AML reclamation by re-mining operations in mountainous mining areas, such as Virginia; efforts underway in Virginia which seek to resolve those issues; and progress achieved to date under that initiative.

Our system fuses information contained in registered images from multiple sensors to reduce the effect of clutter and improve the the ability to detect surface and buried land mines. The sensor suite currently consists if a camera that acquires images in sixible wavelength bands, du, dual-band infrared (5 micron and 10 micron) and ground penetrating radar. Past research has shown that it is extremely difficult to distinguish land mines from background clutter in images obtained from a single sensor. It is hypothesized, however, that information fused from a suite of various sensors is likely to provide better detection reliability, because the suite of sensors detects a variety of physical properties that are more separate in feature space. The materials surrounding the mines can include natural materials (soil, rocks, foliage, water, holes made by animals and natural processes, etc.) and some artifacts.

The LandCast 2050 data set is an empirically-informed spatial distribution of projected population of the contiguous U.S. for 2050 compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Population projections of county level numbers were developed using a modified version of the U.S. Census's projection methodology - with the U.S. Census's official projection as the benchmark. Projected census counts were apportioned to each grid cell based on locally adaptive likelihood coefficients, which are based on landmore¬†¬Ľ cover, slope, road proximity, distances to larger cities, a moving average of current population, and other data sets. The LandCast data set was developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient populations at risk.¬ę¬†less

The LandCast 2030 data set is an empirically-informed spatial distribution of projected population of the contiguous U.S. for 2030 compiled on a 30" x 30" latitute/longitude grid. Population projections of county level numbers were developed using a modified version of the U.S. Census's projection methodology - with the U.S. Census's official projection as the benchmark. Projected census counts were apportioned to each grid cell based on locally adaptive likelihood coefficients, which are based on landmore¬†¬Ľ cover, slope, road proximity, distances to larger cities, a moving average of current population, and other data sets. The LandCast 2030 data set was developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient populations at risk.¬ę¬†less

China has a long history of coal mining and more than 96% of coal output is taken from underground mines each year. With the excavation of coal from underground, severe subsidence often results, which produces many subsidence lands. Since the Chinese government enacted a reclamation stipulation in 1989, many abandoned mining subsidence lands were produced before 1989. Therefore, reclamation of abandoned subsidence lands has become the focus of research activities in our country. This paper explores the principle and methods of reclamation planning for abandoned mining subsidence lands and presents a case study in eastern China. A 373 ha of abandoned mining subsidence land in Anhui province was selected as an experiment site. Since China is a developing country and land shortage is severe in this area, the high economic benefits from the reclaimed land was the final reclamation goal. Based on the topography of subsidence lands --- some parts of the abandoned lands were wetland or lake-like troughs, restoring farmlands and fishponds were chosen as post-reclamation land uses. The elevation of reclaimed lands was the key for restoring farmland successfully because of the high underground water level in this area, and the optimum fishpond size and side-slope design were the keys to reach high reclamation income. The HDP (Hydraulic Dredge Pump) reclamation technique was used for restoring farmland and creating fishpond. A farming and aquaculture plan for high economic benefits was also designed. This project will make farmers, who own the lands, richer through reclamation.

Ion/surface collision phenomena in the hyperthermal collision energy regime (1-100 eV) are reviewed, with emphasis on chemical processes associated with the impact of small organic and biological ions at functionalized self-assembled monolayer surfaces. Inelastic collisions can lead to excitation the projectile ion and can result in fragmentation, a process known as surface-induced dissociation which is useful in chemical analysis using tandem mass spectrometry.. Changes in charge can accompany ion/surface collisions and those associated with a change in polarity (positive to negative ions or vice-versa) are an attractive method for ion structural characterization and isomer differentiation. The energetics, thermochemistry and dynamics of surface-induced charge inversion of nitrobenzene and other substituted aromatics is discussed. Reactive collisions also occur between gaseous ions and surfaces and the reactions depend on the chemical nature of the collision partners. These reactions can be used for selected chemical modifications of surfaces as well as for surface analysis. Particular emphasis is given here to one ion/surface interaction, ion soft-landing, a process in which the projectile ion is landed intact at the surface, either as the corresponding neutral molecule or, interestingly but less commonly, in the form of the ion itself. The ion soft-landing experiment allows preparative mass spectrometry, for example the preparation of pure biological compounds by using the mass spectrometer as a separation device. After separation, the mass-selected ions are collected by soft-landing, at different spatial points in an array. If the experiment is done using a suitable liquid medium, at least some proteins retain their biological activity.

The Land Information System (LIS) was developed to use advanced flexible land surface modeling and data assimilation frameworks to integrate extremely large satellite- and ground-based observations with advanced land surface models to produce continuous high-resolution fields of land surface states and fluxes. The resulting fields are extremely useful for drought and flood assessment, agricultural planning, disaster management, weather and climate forecasting, water resources assessment, and the like. We envisioned transforming the LIS modeling system into a scientific cloud computing-aware web and data service that would allow clients to easily setup and configure for use in addressing large water management issues. The focus of this Phase 1 project was to determine the scientific, technical, commercial merit and feasibility of the proposed LIS-cloud innovations that are currently barriers to broad LIS applicability. We (a) quantified the barriers to broad LIS utility and commercialization (high performance computing, big data, user interface, and licensing issues); (b) designed the proposed LIS-cloud web service, model-data interface, database services, and user interfaces; (c) constructed a prototype LIS user interface including abstractions for simulation control, visualization, and data interaction, (d) used the prototype to conduct a market analysis and survey to determine potential market size and competition, (e) identified LIS software licensing and copyright limitations and developed solutions, and (f) developed a business plan for development and marketing of the LIS-cloud innovation. While some significant feasibility issues were found in the LIS licensing, overall a high degree of LIS-cloud technical feasibility was found.

Phytochrome photosensors control a vast gene network in streptophyte plants, acting as master regulators of diverse growth and developmental processes throughout the life cycle. In contrast with their absence in known chlorophyte algal genomes and most sequenced prasinophyte algal genomes, a phytochrome is found in Micromonas pusilla, a widely distributed marine picoprasinophyte (<2 ¬Ķm cell diameter). Together with phytochromes identified from other prasinophyte lineages, we establish that prasinophyte and streptophyte phytochromes share core light-input and signaling-output domain architectures except for the loss of C-terminal response regulator receiver domains in the streptophyte phytochrome lineage. Phylogenetic reconstructions robustly support the presence ofmore¬†¬Ľ phytochrome in the common progenitor of green algae and land plants. These analyses reveal a monophyletic clade containing streptophyte, prasinophyte, cryptophyte, and glaucophyte phytochromes implying an origin in the eukaryotic ancestor of the Archaeplastida. Transcriptomic measurements reveal diurnal regulation of phytochrome and bilin chromophore biosynthetic genes in Micromonas. The expression of these genes precedes both light-mediated phytochrome redistribution from the cytoplasm to the nucleus and increased expression of photosynthesis-associated genes. Prasinophyte phytochromes perceive wavelengths of light transmitted farther through seawater than the red/far-red light sensed by land plant phytochromes. Prasinophyte phytochromes also retain light-regulated histidine kinase activity lost in the streptophyte phytochrome lineage. Our studies demonstrate that light-mediated nuclear translocation of phytochrome predates the emergence of land plants and likely represents a widespread signaling mechanism in unicellular algae.¬ę¬†less

This report provides information on surface water and groundwater management for use in the mined-land reclamation planning process in California. Mined-land reclamation, as defined by the California Surface Mining and Reclamation Act, is the combination of land treatments which prevent or minimize water degradation, air pollution, damage to aquatic or wildlife habitat, and erosion resulting from a surface mining operation. Surface water and groundwater management play an integral role in nearly every reclamation plan. Groundwater and surface water runoff (both onto and off of the site) must often be evaluated (1) to design flooding and erosion protection measures such as drainage channels, levees, culverts, or riprap; (2) to prepare and carry out a successful revegetation program; (3) to design stable final slopes; (4) to maximize potential available water for the operation and reclamation stages; (5) to prevent the discharge of contaminants from mine processes or from mined areas; and (6) to limit long-term leachate formation and movement from tailings, pit, or waste rock disposal areas. This report is a guide for mine operators, local government, planners, and plan reviewers.

Phytochrome photosensors control a vast gene network in streptophyte plants, acting as master regulators of diverse growth and developmental processes throughout the life cycle. In contrast with their absence in known chlorophyte algal genomes and most sequenced prasinophyte algal genomes, a phytochrome is found in Micromonas pusilla, a widely distributed marine picoprasinophyte (<2 ¬Ķm cell diameter). Together with phytochromes identified from other prasinophyte lineages, we establish that prasinophyte and streptophyte phytochromes share core light-input and signaling-output domain architectures except for the loss of C-terminal response regulator receiver domains in the streptophyte phytochrome lineage. Phylogenetic reconstructions robustly support the presence of phytochrome in the common progenitor of green algae and land plants. These analyses reveal a monophyletic clade containing streptophyte, prasinophyte, cryptophyte, and glaucophyte phytochromes implying an origin in the eukaryotic ancestor of the Archaeplastida. Transcriptomic measurements reveal diurnal regulation of phytochrome and bilin chromophore biosynthetic genes in Micromonas. The expression of these genes precedes both light-mediated phytochrome redistribution from the cytoplasm to the nucleus and increased expression of photosynthesis-associated genes. Prasinophyte phytochromes perceive wavelengths of light transmitted farther through seawater than the red/far-red light sensed by land plant phytochromes. Prasinophyte phytochromes also retain light-regulated histidine kinase activity lost in the streptophyte phytochrome lineage. Our studies demonstrate that light-mediated nuclear translocation of phytochrome predates the emergence of land plants and likely represents a widespread signaling mechanism in unicellular algae.

Utah is rich in oil shale and oil sands resources. Chief among the challenges facing prospective unconventional fuel developers is the ability to access these resources. Access is heavily dependent upon land ownership and applicable management requirements. Understanding constraints on resource access and the prospect of consolidating resource holdings across a fragmented management landscape is critical to understanding the role Utah‚Äôs unconventional fuel resources may play in our nation‚Äôs energy policy. This Topical Report explains the historic roots of the ‚Äúcrazy quilt‚ÄĚ of western land ownership, how current controversies over management of federal public land with wilderness character could impact access to unconventional fuels resources, and how land exchanges could improve management efficiency. Upon admission to the Union, the State of Utah received the right to title to more than one-ninth of all land within the newly formed state. This land is held in trust to support public schools and institutions, and is managed to generate revenue for trust beneficiaries. State trust lands are scattered across the state in mostly discontinuous 640-acre parcels, many of which are surrounded by federal land and too small to develop on their own. Where state trust lands are developable but surrounded by federal land, federal land management objectives can complicate state trust land development. The difficulty generating revenue from state trust lands can frustrate state and local government officials as well as citizens advocating for economic development. Likewise, the prospect of industrial development of inholdings within prized conservation landscapes creates management challenges for federal agencies. One major tension involves whether certain federal public lands possess wilderness character, and if so, whether management of those lands should emphasize wilderness values over other uses. On December 22, 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued

This report presents the data processing methods used in the GCAM 3.0 agriculture and land use component, starting from all source data used, and detailing all calculations and assumptions made in generating the model inputs. The report starts with a brief introduction to modeling of agriculture and land use in GCAM 3.0, and then provides documentation of the data and methods used for generating the base-year dataset and future scenario parameters assumed in the model input files. Specifically, the report addresses primary commodity production, secondary (animal) commodity production, disposition of commodities, land allocation, land carbon contents, and land values.

This study of potential land-related impacts of geothermal power development in The Geysers region focuses on Lake County because it has most of the undeveloped resource and the least regulatory capability. First, the land resource is characterized in terms of its ecological, hydrological, agricultural, and recreational value; intrinsic natural hazards; and the adequacy of roads and utility systems. Based on those factors, the potential land-use conflicts and constraints that geothermal development may encounter in the region are identified and the availability and relative suitability of land for such development is determined. A brief review of laws and powers germane to geothermal land-use regulation is included.

Strip mining for coal in the arid western US will remove grazing land as energy demands are met. Conventional resotration usually includes leveling the spoil banks and covering them with top soil, fertilizing, seeding and irrigation with well or river water. An overview of research on an alternate method of restoring this land is reported. From 1976 through 1981 studies were conducted on the use of water harvesting, the collection and use of rainfall runoff, to restore the vegetative productivity of strip mined lands in arid regions. These studies tested the technical and economic feasibility of using partially leveled spoil banks at strip mines as catchment areas to collect and direct runoff to the topsoiled valley floor where crops were cultivated. Information was collected on the efficiency of seven treatments to increase runoff from the catchment areas and on the productivity of seven crops. The experiments were conducted in arid areas of Washington, Arizona, and Colorado. It was concluded that water harvesting can replace or augment expensive and inadequate supplies of well and river water in arid regions with a suitable climate. These studies showed that some treatments provided adequate runoff to produce a useful crop in the valleys, thus making this alternative approach to restoration technically feasible. This approach was also potentially economically feasible where the treatment costs of the catchment areas were low, the treatment was effective, the crop was productive and valuable, and earthmoving costs were lower than with conventional restoration involving complete leveling of spoil banks. It was also concluded that water harvesting can be made more effective with further information on catchment area treatments, which crops are most adaptable to water harvesting, the optimum incline of the catchment areas and climatic influences on water harvesting.

This study is a model comparison assessing the drivers and impacts of bioenergy production on the global land system and the interaction with other land use based mitigation options in the context of the EMF 27 project. We compare and evaluate results from three integrated assessment models (GCAM, IMAGE, and ReMIND/MAgPIE). All three models project that dedicated bioenergy crops and biomass residues are a potentially important and cost-effective component of the energy system. But bioenergy deployment levels and feedstock composition vary notably across models as do the implications for land-use and greenhouse gas emissions and the interaction with other land use based mitigation measures. Despite numerous model differences, we identify a few that are likely contributing to differences in land-use and emissions attributable to energy crop deployment.

Livestock responses dining grazing of reclaimed land were monitored at the Navajo Mine since 1994. The Navajo Mine Grazing Management Program (GNP) began in 1991 to prepare for bond release and return of reclaimed land to the Navajo Nation by demonstrating the ability of the land to sustain the post-mining land use of livestock grazing. Local Navajos, whose livestock are used in the GMP, are interested in the ability of the land to sustain their livestock. Sustainable livestock grazing implies the ability of animals to thrive, successfully reproduce and maintain the health of the land. Daily care and monitoring of livestock health was carried out by herders hired by the mining company. General animal health parameters including blood selenium levels were monitored quarterly. Livestock responses to grazing reclaimed land have been largely positive. Cows have produced healthy offspring and owners indicate satisfaction with calf size, and overall performance of the cows. Selenium and other blood testing parameters indicate no adverse effect on animal health to date. Hazards associated with reclamation and ongoing mining activities are important considerations for lands being reclaimed for livestock grazing as a post-mining land use and must be monitored carefully during any grazing program. Preliminary results indicate that planned grazing by cattle on reclaimed land at Navajo Mine is feasible and does not adversely affect animal health.

The coal producing area of Appalachian Kentucky has a shortage of developable land. The majority of mined land in this region has been reclaimed to pastureland or hayland, while narrow interpretation of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) and regulations, especially regarding bond release, has limited alternative postmining land uses which could support economic development. A study of Federal and State of Kentucky laws and regulations shows that postmining land use regulations and their implementation have focussed on preventing and minimizing environmental damage. Land use and land use planning concepts are not well understood, thus permit applications inadequately address land use needs and the {open_quotes}highest and best use{close_quotes} of a site. Required information about pre-mining conditions is not collected and analyzed in a way useful for determining appropriate postmining land use. More comprehensive, higher quality land use information, with information about regional factors such as transportation, utilities, labor market, etc., should be included in the permit application to identify sites with strong development potential. This, combined with a broader interpretation of the law recognizing the validity of a phased implementation of postmined land use, would continue environmental protection while preparing reclaimed land to meet potential future land use needs. The mining plan can be designed so that appropriate areas are prepared and laid out for future buildings or roads, yet are conducive to interim use for pasture, wildlife or recreation. Reclamation to the interim use, sufficient to protect the public and allow bond release, maintains the potential for later development. Land later can be made available in response to development demands, contributing to a more diversified economy.

The physical, spatial and land-use impacts of decentralized solar technologies applied at the community level by the year 2000 are examined. The results of the study are intended to provide a basis for evaluating the way in which a shift toward reliance on decentralized energy technologies may eventually alter community form. Six land-use types representative of those found in most US cities are analyzed according to solar penetration levels identified in the maximum solar scenario for the year 2000. The scenario is translated into shares of end use demand in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors. These proportions become the scenario goals to be met by the use of decentralized solar energy systems. The percentage of total energy demand is assumed to be 36.5 percent, 18.8 percent and 22.6 percent in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors respectively. The community level scenario stipulated that a certain percentage of the total demand be met by on-site solar collection, i.e. photovoltaic and thermal collectors, and by passive design. This on-site solar goal is 31.9 percent (residential), 16.8 percent (commercial) and 13.1 percent (industrial).

VOCALS (VAMOS* Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study) is an international CLIVAR program the major goal of which is to develop and promote scientific activities leading to improved understanding of the Southeast Pacific (SEP) coupled ocean-atmosphere-land system on diurnal to inter-annual timescales. The principal program objectives are: 1) the improved understanding and regional/global model representation of aerosol indirect effects over the SEP; 2) the elimination of systematic errors in the region of coupled atmospheric-ocean general circulation models, and improved model simulations and predictions of the coupled climate in the SEP and global impacts of the system variability. VOCALS is organized into two tightly coordinated components: 1) a Regional Experiment (VOCALSREx), and 2) a Modeling Program (VOCALS-Mod). Extended observations (e.g. IMET buoy, satellites, EPIC/PACS cruises) will provide important additional contextual datasets that help to link the field and the modeling components. The coordination through VOCALS of observational and modeling efforts (Fig. 3) will accelerate the rate at which field data can be used to improve simulations and predictions of the tropical climate variability [Copied from the Vocals Program Summary of June 2007, available as a link from the VOCALS web at http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/vocals/]. The CLIVAR sponsored program to under which VOCALS falls is VAMOS, which stands for Variability of the American Monsoon Systems.

We explore the impact of changes in agricultural productivity on global land use and terrestrial carbon using the new agriculture and land use modeling approach developed for Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) version 3.0. This approach models economic land use decisions with regional, physical, and technological specificity while maintaining economic and physical integration with the rest of the GCAM model. Physical land characteristics and quantities are tracked explicitly, and crop production practices are modeled discretely to facilitate coupling with physical models. Economic land allocation is modeled with non-linear functions in a market equilibrium rather than through a constrained optimization. In this paper, we explore three scenarios of future agriculture productivity in all regions of the globe over this century, ranging from a high growth to a zero growth level. The higher productivity growth scenario leads to lower crop prices, increased production of crops in developing nations, preservation of global forested lands and lower terrestrial carbon emissions. The scenario with no productivity improvement results in higher crop prices, an expansion of crop production in the developed world, loss of forested lands globally, and higher terrestrial carbon emissions.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" X 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on land cover, slope, road proximity, high-resolution imagery, and other data sets. The LandScan data set was developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient populations at risk.

NREL for Geothermal Technical Support U.S. Bureau of Land Management Looks to NREL for Geothermal Technical Support March 2, 2016 The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has entered into an interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to provide technical support and assistance in the development of renewable energy from geothermal resources on public lands. This agreement represents an expansion of NREL's existing and developing

Committee on Natural Resources | Department of Energy Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands - Committee on Natural Resources Before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands - Committee on Natural Resources Before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands - Committee on Natural Resources By: Ingrid Kolb, Director Office of Management Subject: Proposed Manhattan Project National Historical Park Microsoft Word - 6.28.12 MA

Department of Energy Deployment of Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency on Indian Lands FOA DOE Deployment of Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency on Indian Lands FOA December 10, 2015 5:00PM EST U.S. Department of Energy Up to $6 million in funding is available to accelerate clean energy development on tribal lands. Through this funding opportunity announcement (FOA), DOE Office of Indian Energy will help Indian Tribes (including Alaska Native regional corporations, village corporations) to

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30" x 30" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts (at sub-national level) were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on proximity to roads, slope, land cover, nighttime lights, and other data sets. LandScan 2001 has been developed as part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Global Population Project for estimating ambient population risk.

Bureau of Land Management ESPC across Six States Bureau of Land Management ESPC across Six States Fact sheet describes an overview of alternative financing mechanisms available to federal agencies to fund renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Download the Bureau of Land Management ESPC fact sheet. (667.22 KB) More Documents & Publications Preliminary Assessment Template Tribal Energy Project Development Through ESCOs Energy Savings Performance Contract ENABLE Briefing

This report examines the various sources of radiological land contamination; its extent; its impacts on man, agriculture, and the environment; countermeasures for mitigating exposures; radiological standards; alternatives for achieving land decontamination and cleanup; and possible alternatives for utilizing the land. The major potential sources of extensive long-term land contamination with radionuclides, in order of decreasing extent, are nuclear war, detonation of a single nuclear weapon (e.g., a terrorist act), serious reactor accidents, and nonfission nuclear weapons accidents that disperse the nuclear fuels (termed ''broken arrows'').

We present a search for the proton decay modemore¬†¬Ľ $$p \\rightarrow \\bar{v}K^+$$ based on an exposure of 8.97 kton-years in the KamLAND experiment. The liquid scintillator detector is sensitive to successive signals from $$p \\rightarrow \\bar{v}K^+$$ with unique kinematics, which allow us to achieve a detection efficiency of 44%, higher than previous searches in water Cherenkov detectors. We find no evidence of proton decays for this mode. The expected background, which is dominated by atmospheric neutrinos, is 0:9 ¬Ī 0.2 events. The nonbackground-subtracted limit on the partial proton lifetime is ŌĄőí($$p \\rightarrow \\bar{v}K^+$$) > 5.4 x 1032 years at 90% C.L.¬ę¬†less

We present a search for the proton decay mode $p \\rightarrow \\bar{v}K^+$ based on an exposure of 8.97 kton-years in the KamLAND experiment. The liquid scintillator detector is sensitive to successive signals from $p \\rightarrow \\bar{v}K^+$ with unique kinematics, which allow us to achieve a detection efficiency of 44%, higher than previous searches in water Cherenkov detectors. We find no evidence of proton decays for this mode. The expected background, which is dominated by atmospheric neutrinos, is 0:9 ¬Ī 0.2 events. The nonbackground-subtracted limit on the partial proton lifetime is ŌĄőí($p \\rightarrow \\bar{v}K^+$) > 5.4 x 1032 years at 90% C.L.

The increase in demand for power in domestic, agricultural, and industrial sectors has increased the pressure on coal combustion and aggravated the problem of fly ash generation/disposal. Consequently the research targeting effective utilization of fly ash has also gained momentum. Fly ash has proved to be an economical substitute for expensive adsorbents as well as a suitable raw material for brick manufacturing, zeolite synthesis, etc. Fly ash is a reservoir of essential minerals but is deficient in nitrogen and phosphorus. By amending fly ash with soil and/or various organic materials (sewage sludge, bioprocess materials) as well as microbial inoculants like mycorrhizae, enhanced plant growth can be realized. Based on the sound results of large scale studies, fly ash utilization has grown into prominent discipline supported by various internationally renowned organizations. This paper reviews attempts directed toward various utilization of fly ash, with an emphasis on land application of organic/microbial inoculants amended fly ash.

The long-term reliability of land disposal facility final cover systems - and therefore the overall waste containment - depends on the distortions imposed on these systems by differential settlement/subsidence. The evaluation of differential settlement is challenging because of the heterogeneity of the waste mass (caused by inconsistent compaction, void space distribution, debris-soil mix ratio, waste material stiffness, time-dependent primary compression of the fine-grained soil matrix, long-term creep settlement of the soil matrix and the debris, etc.) at most land disposal facilities. Deterministic approaches to long-term final cover settlement prediction are not able to capture the spatial variability in the waste mass and sub-grade properties which control differential settlement. An alternative, probabilistic solution is to use random fields to model the waste and sub-grade properties. The modeling effort informs the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of land disposal facilities. A probabilistic method to establish design criteria for waste placement and compaction is introduced using the model. Random fields are ideally suited to problems of differential settlement modeling of highly heterogeneous foundations, such as waste. Random fields model the seemingly random spatial distribution of a design parameter, such as compressibility. When used for design, the use of these models prompts the need for probabilistic design criteria. It also allows for a statistical approach to waste placement acceptance criteria. An example design evaluation was performed, illustrating the use of the probabilistic differential settlement simulation methodology to assemble a design guidance chart. The purpose of this design evaluation is to enable the designer to select optimal initial combinations of design slopes and quality control acceptance criteria that yield an acceptable proportion of post-settlement slopes meeting some design minimum. For this specific

This report summarizes the results of characterization activities at the proposed state-approved land disposal site (SALDS); it updates the original characterization report with studies completed since the first characterization report. The initial characterization report discusses studies from two characterization boreholes, 699-48-77A and 699-48-77B. This revision includes data from implementation of the Groundwater Monitoring Plan and the Aquifer Test Plan. The primary sources of data are two down-gradient groundwater monitoring wells, 699-48-77C and 699-48-77D, and aquifer testing of three zones in well 699-48-77C. The SALDS is located on the Hanford Site, approximately 183 m north of the 200 West Area on the north side of the 200 Areas Plateau. The SALDS is an infiltration basin proposed for disposal of treated effluents from the 200 Areas of Hanford.

The public reclamation cost of reclaiming all of Pennsylvania`s abandoned mine lands is estimated at $15 billion. Drainage from abandoned mines poses another $5 billion water pollution clean-up problem. Although it is unlikely that public reclamation alone could ever tackle these problems, much can be done to alleviate the nuisances through the remining of previously mined areas to recover remaining reserves, restore the land and improve water quality in the same process. Remining of priority areas is encouraged through a new Pennsylvania policy which provides incentives to mining companies. One incentive, initiated under Pennsylvania`s comprehensive mine reclamation strategy, is to identify and geologically map reminable coal resources in selected watersheds, and then to expedite mine permitting in these watersheds. At present, two such priority watersheds, Little Toby Creek in Elk County and Tangascootak Creek in Clinton County, are the focus of geologic map compilation based on recent quadrangle mapping, or new, directed, geologic mapping, including new research core drilling to establish the geologic stratigraphic framework. In order to maximize environmental benefits the comprehensive mine reclamation strategy identifies watersheds which are affected by acid mine drainage (AMD), but that are reasonably capable of restoration, if sufficient coal reserves remain. Pennsylvania`s geochemical quality database of rock overburden, in combination with detailed coal resource mapping by the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, and the cooperation of coal companies and leaseholders, is being used by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to identify and design remining projects which will not only allow the recovery of coal resources, but will also improve the water quality through a variety of innovative mining techniques.

Land Use/Land Cover Map of the Central Facility of ARM in the Southern Great Plains Site Using DOE's Multi-Spectral Thermal Imager Satellite Images S. E. B√°ez Cazull Pre-Service Teacher Program University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico A. Cialla Brookhaven National Laboratory Department of Environmental Sciences Upton, New York Introduction The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program is a multi-laboratory, interagency program that was created with funding from the U.S.

SPOT HRV multispectral and panchromatic data were recorded and coregistered for a portion of the rural-urban fringe of Toronto, Canada. A two-stage digital analysis algorithm incorporating a spectral-class frequency-based contextual classification of eight land-cover and land-use classes resulted in an overall Kappa coefficient of 82.2 percent for training-area data and a Kappa coefficient of 70.3 percent for test-area data. A matrix-overlay analysis was then performed within the geographic information system (GIS) to combine the land-cover and land-use classes generated from the SPOT digital classification with zoning information for the area. The map that was produced has an estimated interpretation accuracy of 78 percent. Global Positioning System (GPS) data provided a positional reference for new road networks. These networks, in addition to the new land-cover and land-use map derived from the SPOT HRV data, provide an up-to-date synthesis of change conditions in the area. 51 refs.

Up to $6 million in funding is available to accelerate clean energy development on tribal lands. Through this funding opportunity announcement (FOA), DOE Office of Indian Energy will help Indian Tribes (including Alaska Native regional corporations, village corporations, tribal consortia, and tribal organizations) to install facility-scale clean energy and energy efficiency projects and community-scale clean energy projects on Indian lands.

The 2002 Wastewater Land Application site Performance Reports for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory describe site conditions for the facilities with State of Idaho Wastewater Land Application Permits. Permit-required monitoring data are summarized, and permit exceedences or environmental impacts relating to the operation of the facilities during the 2002 permit year are discussed.

The 2003 Wastewater Land Application Site Performance Reports for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory describe the conditions for the facilities with State of Idaho Wastewater Land Application Permits. Permit-required monitoring data are summarized, and permit exceedences or environmental impacts relating to the operations of the facilities during the 2003 permit year are discussed.

The LandScan data set is a worldwide population database compiled on a 30"x20" latitude/longitude grid. Census counts at sub-national level were apportioned to each grid cell based on likelihood coefficients, which are based on land cover, slope, road proximity, high-resolution imagery, and other data sets.

In order to evaluate the transfer of certain Federal lands at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the US Department of Energy (DOE) determined that the proposed action had the potential to result in environmental impacts and required the preparation of an Environmental Assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The specific proposed action evaluated by DOE with support from LANL was the transfer of approximately 28 contiguous acres of underutilized Federal land to the County. This tract was locally referred to as the DP Road tract. Although the land was underutilized, it functioned as part of a larger buffer area between potentially hazardous operations at LANL and the general public. The tract was covered with scrub vegetation. There were no government buildings located on the site. The tract of land had two Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Solid Waste Management Units (SWMUs) located within the tract boundary as well as a buried but active liquid radioactive waste pipeline that crossed the site. The tract of land was adjacent to several other DOE SWMUs as well as a public road. In addition, there were ownership issues pertaining to the transfer of the land to persons and agencies other than the County. This particular tract of land was being considered for transfer to the County at the same time DOE and LANL began evaluating another large Federal land tract for lease to the County to be developed as a private research park.

This periodic publication summarizes insights from the body of NREL analysis work. In this issue of Analysis Insights, we examine the implications of our energy choices on water, land use, climate, developmental goals, and other factors. Collectively, NREL's work helps policymakers and investors understand and evaluate energy choices within the complex web of connections, or nexus, between energy, water, and land.

The Carbon Calculator for Land Use Change from Biofuels Production (CCLUB) calculates carbon emissions from land use change (LUC) for four different ethanol production pathways including corn grain ethanol and cellulosic ethanol from corn stover, Miscanthus, and switchgrass. This document discusses the version of CCLUB released September 30, 2014 which includes corn and three cellulosic feedstocks: corn stover, Miscanthus, and switchgrass.

Policies aimed at limiting anthropogenic climate change would result in significant transformations of the energy and land-use systems. However, increasing the demand for bioenergy could have a tremendous impact on land use, and can result in land clearing and deforestation. Wise et al. (2009a,b) analyzed an idealized policy to limit the indirect land use change emissions from bioenergy. The policy, while effective, would be difficult, if not impossible, to implement in the real world. In this paper, we consider several different land use policies that deviate from this first-best, using the Joint Global Change Research Institute‚Äôs Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM). Specifically, these new frameworks are (1) a policy that focuses on just the above-ground or vegetative terrestrial carbon rather than the total carbon, (2) policies that focus exclusively on incentivizing and protecting forestland, and (3) policies that apply an economic penalty on the use of biomass as a proxy to limit indirect land use change emissions. For each policy, we examine its impact on land use, land-use change emissions, atmospheric CO2 concentrations, agricultural supply, and food prices.

This Final ''Hanford Comprehensive Land-Use Plan Environmental Impact Statement'' (HCP EIS) is being used by the Department of Energy (DOE) and its nine cooperating and consulting agencies to develop a comprehensive land-use plan (CLUP) for the Hanford Site. The DOE will use the Final HCP EIS as a basis for a Record of Decision (ROD) on a CLUP for the Hanford Site. While development of the CLUP will be complete with release of the HCP EIS ROD, full implementation of the CLUP is expected to take at least 50 years. Implementation of the CLUP would begin a more detailed planning process for land-use and facility-use decisions at the Hanford Site. The DOE would use the CLUP to screen proposals. Eventually, management of Hanford Site areas would move toward the CLUP land-use goals. This CLUP process could take more than 50 years to fully achieve the land-use goals.

Many papers have shown that bioenergy and land-use are potentially important elements in a strategy to limit anthropogenic climate change. But, significant expansion of bioenergy production can have a large terrestrial footprint. In this paper, we test the implications for land use, the global energy system, carbon cycle, and carbon prices of meeting a specific climate target, using a single fossil fuel and industrial sector policy instrument‚ÄĒthe carbon tax, but with five alternative bioenergy and land-use policy architectures. We find that the policies we examined have differing effects on the different segments of the economy. Comprehensive land policies can reduce land-use change emissions, increasing allowable emissions in the energy system, but have implications for the cost of food. Bioenergy taxes and constraints, on the other hand, have little effect on food prices, but can result in increased carbon and energy prices.

This report provides data and analysis of the land use associated with utility-scale ground-mounted solar facilities, defined as installations greater than 1 MW. We begin by discussing standard land-use metrics as established in the life-cycle assessment literature and then discuss their applicability to solar power plants. We present total and direct land-use results for various solar technologies and system configurations, on both a capacity and an electricity-generation basis. The total area corresponds to all land enclosed by the site boundary. The direct area comprises land directly occupied by solar arrays, access roads, substations, service buildings, and other infrastructure. As of the third quarter of 2012, the solar projects we analyze represent 72% of installed and under-construction utility-scale PV and CSP capacity in the United States.

We present results from the Bayesian calibration of hydrological parameters of the Community Land Model (CLM), which is often used in climate simulations and Earth system models. A statistical inverse problem is formulated for three hydrological parameters, conditional on observations of latent heat surface fluxes over 48 months. Our calibration method uses polynomial and Gaussian process surrogates of the CLM, and solves the parameter estimation problem using a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler. Posterior probability densities for the parameters are developed for two sites with different soil and vegetation covers. Our method also allows us to examine the structural error in CLM under two error models. We find that surrogate models can be created for CLM in most cases. The posterior distributions are more predictive than the default parameter values in CLM. Climatologically averaging the observations does not modify the parameters' distributions significantly. The structural error model reveals a correlation time-scale which can be used to identify the physical process that could be contributing to it. While the calibrated CLM has a higher predictive skill, the calibration is under-dispersive.

The Illinois Abandoned Mined Lands Reclamation Council (AMLRC), created in 1975, is responsible for the abatement of hazardous and environmental problems associated with pre-law abandoned coal mines throughout the State. The availability of federal funds for reclamation, through passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA), greatly expanded the program. With funds provided through early cooperative agreements and current annual grants from the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM), the State has reclaimed, or is currently reclaiming, 182 mine sites and has assisted OSM in the abatement of 67 emergency situations. This paper reviews the progress made by the AMLRC in dealing with the State's abandoned mine problems. Specifically, the numbers and types of problem sites reclaimed annually, their costs, and reclamation methods are identified. Progress of the program relative to the entire State's abandoned mine problems is reviewed. The effects of other reclamation factors, such as natural revegetation, remaining privately-funded reclamation, and secondary carbon recovery, on the overall scope of the State's program are also examined. General comments are made concerning grant preparation, State-OSM cooperation and AML-Inventory control. Selected reclamation projects and techniques are also discussed. 11 references, 3 tables.

Although ground-water withdrawal has been the predominant cause of land subsidence in the Texas Gulf Coast, localized subsidence and faulting have also resulted from hydrocarbon production. Subsidence was documented as early as the 1920s over the Goose Creek field. Since then, subsidence and/or faulting have been identified over the Saxet, South Houston, Chocolate Bayou, Hastings, Alco-Mag, Clinton, Mykawa, Blue Ridge, Webster, and Caplen oil fields. Oil-production-related subsidence over these fields generally creates few environmental or engineering problems. One exception is the subsidence and faulting over the Caplen oil field on Bolivar Peninsula, where more than 1,000 ac of saltwater marsh has been replaced by subaqueous flats. Subsidence may be occurring over other fields but has not been identified because of limited releveled benchmark data. An evaluation of drill-stem and bottom-hole pressure data for the Frio Formation in Texas indicates extensive depressurization presumably from hydrocarbon production. Nearly 12,000 measurements from a pressure data base of 17,000 measurements indicate some depressurization. Some of the Frio zones have pressure declines of more than 1,500 psi from original hydrostatic conditions. Subsidence and faulting may be associated with these fields in the Frio as well as other Tertiary formations where extensive hydrocarbon production and subsequent depressurization have occurred.

Abandoned mine lands (AML) subsidence is one of the most hazardous problems for personal property and community development. In order to improve the technique for subsidence diagnosis and the effectiveness of remedial measures, several methods and techniques have been developed in this research. A subsidence site investigation checklist is developed to guide the investigators with or without hands-on experience to collect a complete and necessary information for subsidence analysis during site investigation. A subsidence cause identification system is developed to streamline the process of analysis and for subsidence cause differentiation and identification over AML. A damage severity system is developed to evaluate the intensity of the damage to structures. A subsidence deduction model is developed based on the probability function integration method to reconstruct subsidence profile and subsurface failure zone for AML subsidence. The study is based on the case studies which include site investigation, surface subsidence survey, subsurface instrumentation, damage severity evaluation, subsidence deduction and statistical analysis. The results show that geologic conditions such as seam depth, seam height, ratios of strong and weak rocks do affect the subsidence damage area, subsidence factor, and damage severity. The relationship between above parameters can be expressed by a second order polynomial with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.7 to 0.9.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Public Buildings Service (PBS) has jurisdiction, custody or control over 105 land ports of entry throughout the United States, 35 of which are located along the southern border. At these facilities, one of the critical functions of windows is to provide border control personnel with direct visual contact with the surrounding environment. This also can be done through surveillance cameras, but the high value that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) officers place on direct visual contact can be encapsulated in the following statement by a senior officer regarding this project: ‚Äúnothing replaces line of sight.‚ÄĚ In sunny conditions, however, outdoor visibility can be severely compromised by glare, especially when the orb of the sun is in the field of view. This often leads to the deployment of operable shading devices, such as Venetian blinds. While these devices address the glare, they obstruct the view of the surroundings, negating the visual security benefits of the windows.

We present results from the Bayesian calibration of hydrological parameters of the Community Land Model (CLM), which is often used in climate simulations and Earth system models. A statistical inverse problem is formulated for three hydrological parameters, conditioned on observations of latent heat surface fluxes over 48 months. Our calibration method uses polynomial and Gaussian process surrogates of the CLM, and solves the parameter estimation problem using a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler. Posterior probability densities for the parameters are developed for two sites with different soil and vegetation covers. Our method also allows us to examine the structural error in CLM under two error models. We find that accurate surrogate models can be created for CLM in most cases. The posterior distributions lead to better prediction than the default parameter values in CLM. Climatologically averaging the observations does not modify the parametersí distributions significantly. The structural error model reveals a correlation time-scale which can potentially be used to identify physical processes that could be contributing to it. While the calibrated CLM has a higher predictive skill, the calibration is under-dispersive.

Working safely and having a healthy respect for safety has always been important to the Corps of Engineers. Because we recognize the increased importance of safety to crane operations, we have developed this Training and Licensing program for all crane operators. What the guidelines and this program intends is, think before you act and thinking requires a knowledge base. We feel the following program strengthens the guidelines to enable competent as well as confident crane operations by our personnel. This document outlines the Corps of Engineer`s Land Based Crane Training and Licensing Program for Class I, II, and III operators. The Corps of Engineer`s Portland District Operation`s Division melded guidelines from industry with specific Corps regulations to produce this program. The Crane Licensing and Training program includes three crane operator classes. Each class discusses licensing, physical and academic requirements and performance evaluations. Other related personnel and their responsibilities are also discussed. These include rigger/signalmen, maintenance staff, and inspectors. A section on testing requirements for specific needs follows with a glossary at the end of this document.

The end-Permian mass extinction has been envisaged as the nadir of biodiversity decline due to increasing volcanic gas emissions over some 9 million years. We propose a different tempo and mechanism of extinction because we recognize two separate but geologically abrupt mass extinctions on land, one terminating the Middle Permian (Guadalupian) at 260.4 Ma and a later one ending the Permian Period at 251 Ma. Our evidence comes from new paleobotanical, paleopedological, and carbon isotopic studies of Portal Mountain, Antarctica, and comparable studies in the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Extinctions have long been apparent among marine invertebrates at both the end of the Guadalupian and end of the Permian, which were also times of warm-wet greenhouse climatic transients, marked soil erosion, transition from high- to low-sinuosity and braided streams, soil stagnation in wetlands, and profound negative carbon isotope anomalies. Both mass extinctions may have resulted from catastrophic methane outbursts to the atmosphere from coal intruded by feeder dikes to flood basalts, such as the end-Guadalupian Emeishan Basalt and end-Permian Siberian Traps.

The post-mining land use for Navajo Mine, a large surface coal mine in northwest New Mexico, is livestock grazing. Reclamation began in the early 1970`s and has been primarily directed toward the development of a grassland with shrubs. However, none of these lands were grazed before 1994 and none have been released back to the Navajo Nation. Therefore, it is not known how these reclaimed lands will respond to livestock impacts once the lands are released. Livestock impacts include grazing, trampling, and adding feces and urine. Cattle impacts were applied in 1994 to a land that had been reclaimed in 1978, 1991 and 1992. Vegetation monitoring procedures were implemented to detect and document successful and unsuccessful impact practices for both impacted areas and areas excluded from cattle. After three impact seasons, there were similar levels of perennial plant cover, production, and density on impacted lands compared to excluded lands. Based on age structure analysis, there is a trend that establishment of seedlings is stimulated by cattle. Cattle also decrease the amount of previous years` growth of standing phytomass with a trend to stimulate new growth. It is possible that some of the previous year`s growth was reduced by cattle trampling as much as by grazing because cattle generally prefer to eat the current year`s growth before it cures. No differences in number of seedheads per plant, animal sign, plant pedestals, and soil rills could be detected after three seasons of impacting.

Livestock grazing is the post-mining use for reclaimed land at Navajo Mine, a large surface coal mine on the Navajo Nation in northwest New Mexico. The Navajo Mine Grazing Management Program (GMP) uses holistic management on approximately 2,083 ha of reclaimed land to plan for final liability release and return of the land to the Navajo Nation, and to minimize the potential for post-release liability. The GMP began in 1991 to establish that livestock grazing on the reclaimed land is sustainable. Assuming that sustainability requires alternatives to conventional land management practices, the GMP created a Management Team consisting of company staff, local, Navajo Nation, and Federal government officials, and technical advisors. Community members contributed to the formation of a holistic goal for the GMP that articulates their values and their desire for sustainable grazing. Major decisions (e.g., artificial insemination, water supply, supplemental feed) are tested against the goal. Biological changes in the land and the grazing animals are monitored daily to provide early feedback to managers, and annually to document the results of grazing. To date, the land has shown resilience to grazing and the animals have generally prospered. Community participation in the GMP and public statements of support by local officials indicate that the GMP`s strategy is likely to succeed.

The last two decades have seen a substantial rise in the use of advanced materials such as polymer composites for aerospace structural applications. In more recent years there has been a concerted effort to integrate materials, which mimic biological functions (referred to as smart materials) with polymeric composites. Prominent among smart materials are shape memory alloys, which possess both actuating and sensory functions that can be realized simultaneously. The proper characterization and modeling of advanced and smart materials holds the key to the design and development of efficient smart devices/systems. This paper focuses on the material characterization; modeling and validation of the model in relation to the development of a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) based smart landing gear (with high energy dissipation features) for a semi rigid radio controlled airship (RC-blimp). The Super Elastic (SE) SMA element is configured in such a way that it is forced into a tensile mode of high elastic deformation. The smart landing gear comprises of a landing beam, an arch and a super elastic Nickel-Titanium (Ni-Ti) SMA element. The landing gear is primarily made of polymer carbon composites, which possess high specific stiffness and high specific strength compared to conventional materials, and are therefore ideally suited for the design and development of an efficient skid landing gear system with good energy dissipation characteristics. The development of the smart landing gear in relation to a conventional metal landing gear design is also dealt with.

Report Firms Up Land-Use Requirements of Solar Study shows solar for 1,000 homes would require 32 acres July 30, 2013 The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has published a report on the land use requirements of solar power plants based on actual land-use practices from existing solar facilities. "Having real data from a majority of the solar plants in the United States will help people make proper comparisons and informed decisions," lead author Sean Ong

Rights-of-Way Study | Department of Energy Interior and Energy Release Report on Indian Land Rights-of-Way Study U.S. Departments of Interior and Energy Release Report on Indian Land Rights-of-Way Study May 15, 2007 - 12:55pm Addthis WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) (Departments) today delivered to Congress and sent to the Federal Register the Indian Land Rights-of-Way Study required by Section 1813 of the Energy Policy Act of

Department of Energy Releases New Land-Based/Offshore Wind Resource Map Energy Department Releases New Land-Based/Offshore Wind Resource Map May 1, 2012 - 2:23pm Addthis This is an excerpt from the Second Quarter 2012 edition of the Wind Program R&D Newsletter. The Energy Department recently released a new wind resource map compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and AWS Truepower that combines land-based with offshore resources. The new combined map, posted on the

It is Department of Energy policy to manage all of its land and facilities as valuable national resources. Our stewardship will be based on the principles of ecosystem management and sustainable development. We will integrate mission, economic. ecologic, social and cultural factors in a comprehensive plan for each site that will guide land and facility use decisions. Each comprehensive plan will consider the site's larger regional context and be developed with stakeholder participation. This policy will result in land and facility uses which support the Department's critical missions. stimulate the economy, and protect the environment. This Policy was cancelled by DOE N 251.102, Cancellation of Directives (2011).

07 Land Parcels A B C E K LN PL - NM 07 Site ID (CSD Index Number): NM.09 Site Name: LOS ALAMOS LAND PARCELS A B C E K L N PIPELINE (NM.07) / LASL PIPELINE FACILITY (NM.08) / LASL TRACTS EASTERN AREA L Site Summary: These land parcels, previously owned by the federal government, were sold in 1972. The pipeline facility and eastern area L were identified separately in some documents and assigned individual numbers by FUSRAP researchers, but these parcels were included in NM.07. Site Link:

Rights-of-Way Study | Department of Energy Departments of Interior and Energy Release Report on Indian Land Rights-of-Way Study U.S. Departments of Interior and Energy Release Report on Indian Land Rights-of-Way Study May 15, 2007 - 11:02am Addthis WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) (Departments) today delivered to Congress and sent to the Federal Register the Indian Land Rights-of-Way Study required by Section 1813 of the

Rights-of-Way Study, May 15, 2007 | Department of Energy Departments of Interior and Energy Release Report on Indian Land Rights-of-Way Study, May 15, 2007 U.S. Departments of Interior and Energy Release Report on Indian Land Rights-of-Way Study, May 15, 2007 The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) (Departments) today delivered to Congress and sent to the Federal Register the Indian Land Rights-of-Way Study required by Section 1813 of the Energy

Climate projections depend on scenarios of fossil fuel emissions and land use change, and the IPCC AR5 parallel process assumes consistent climate scenarios across Integrated Assessment and Earth System Models (IAMs and ESMs). To facilitate consistency, CMIP5 used a novel land use harmonization to provide ESMs with seamless, 1500-2100 land use trajectories generated by historical data and four IAMs. However, we have identified and partially addressed a major gap in the CMIP5 land coupling design. The CMIP5 Community ESM (CESM) global afforestation is only 22% of RCP4.5 afforestation from 2005 to 2100. Likewise, only 17% of the Global Change Assessment Modelís (GCAMís) 2040 RCP4.5 afforestation signal, and none of the pasture loss, were transmitted to CESM within a newly integrated model. This is a critical problem because afforestation is necessary for achieving the RCP4.5 climate stabilization. We attempted to rectify this problem by modifying only the ESM component of the integrated model, enabling CESM to simulate 66% of GCAMís afforestation in 2040, and 94% of GCAMís pasture loss as grassland and shrubland losses. This additional afforestation increases vegetation carbon gain by 19 PgC and decreases atmospheric CO2 gain by 8 ppmv from 2005 to 2040, implying different climate scenarios between CMIP5 GCAM and CESM. Similar inconsistencies likely exist in other CMIP5 model results, primarily because land cover information is not shared between models, with possible contributions from afforestation exceeding model-specific, potentially viable forest area. Further work to harmonize land cover among models will be required to adequately rectify this problem.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. ‚Äď Supporting future land use for the U.S. Forest Service, Los Alamos National Laboratory‚Äôs Corrective Actions Program (CAP) completed sampling soil at Fenton Hill in the Jemez Mountains this month.

The overall objective of this collaborative project is to integrate an existing general equilibrium energy-economic growth model with a biogeochemical cycles and biophysical models in order to more fully explore the potential contribution of land use-related activities to future emissions scenarios. Land cover and land use change activities, including deforestation, afforestation, and agriculture management, are important source of not only CO2, but also non-CO2 GHGs. Therefore, contribution of land-use emissions to total emissions of GHGs is important, and consequently their future trends are relevant to the estimation of climate change and its mitigation. This final report covers the full project period of the award, beginning May 2006, which includes a sub-contract to Brown University later transferred to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) when Co-PI Brian O'Neill changed institutional affiliations.

The purpose of this research was to develop an integrated, interdisciplinary framework to investigate the implications of large scale production of biofuels for land use, crop production, farm income and greenhouse gases. In particular, we examine the mix of feedstocks that would be viable for biofuel production and the spatial allocation of land required for producing these feedstocks at various gasoline and carbon emission prices as well as biofuel subsidy levels. The implication of interactions between energy policy that seeks energy independence from foreign oil and climate policy that seeks to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions for the optimal mix of biofuels and land use will also be investigated. This project contributes to the ELSI research goals of sustainable biofuel production while balancing competing demands for land and developing policy approaches needed to support biofuel production in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner.

Advances in remote sensing, dasymetric mapping techniques, and the ever-increasing availability of spatial datasets have enhanced global human population distribution databases. These datasets demonstrate an enormous improvement over the conventional use of choropleth maps to represent population distribution and are vital for analysis and planning purposes including humanitarian response, disease mapping, risk analysis, and evacuation modeling. Dasymetric mapping techniques have been employed to address spatial mismatch, but also to develop finer resolution population distributions in areas of the world where subnational census data are coarse or non-existent. One such implementation is the LandScan Global model which provides a 30 arc-second global population distribution based on ancillary datasets such as land cover, slope, proximity to roads, and settlement locations. This work will review the current state of the LandScan model, future innovations aimed at increasing spatial and demographic resolution, and situate LandScan within the landscape of other global population distribution datasets.